The Cyprus Museum of Nicosia is often regarded as the island’s number one museum because it houses an especially rare and extensive collection of Cypriot antiquities.

The Cyprus Museum was founded in 1888 as a way to preserve the artifacts archaeologists were finding while excavating around the island. The Cyprus Museum may not have the ultra modern facilities found in Paris’ Louvre or London’s British Museum, but its collection is nothing short of impressive, with the oldest pieces dating back to the 8th millennium B.C.

The Byzantine Museum in Lefkosia (Nicosia) within the walls contains the richest and most representative collection of Byzantine art on the island. About 230 icons dating from the 9th to the 19th centuries, as well as other typical examples of the Byzantine art of Cyprus, such as sacred vessels, vestments and books, are on display. The collection includes many icons dating from the 9th century when iconography was at its height.

The core of the collection consists of 48 icons, which come from churches all over Cyprus and from the "Synodikon" of the church of Panagia Phaneromeni, which initially was intended to house the Cyprus Byzantine Museum.

This area of the city in the old town has narrow winding alleys filled with traditional restaurants, art galleries and boutiques nestled between traditional houses typical of the colonial urban architecture of the island. For browsing in a bohemian atmosphere, full of the sights and sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean, an afternoon is well spent here. The renovation of the area earned it the ‘Golden Apple’ award from travel writers, preserving its character whilst making it accessible to all.

Machairas Monastery was founded, in 1148, by two monks, Neophytos and Ignatius, on the eastern foothills of the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, twenty-five miles south of the city of Nicosia. After the death of Neophytos, Ignatius accompanied, by the monk Propokius, traveled to Constantinople in 1172 to plead for financial assistance from the emperor, Manuel I Komnenos. Succeeding in their quest, the monastery was granted ownership of the entire mountain and given the status of stavropegion which made it independent of the local bishop, the Bishop of Tamasia. The monks built a small church that early in the thirteenth century was enlarged by the first abbot of the monastery, Neilos.