LIM_476

Address: 16is Iouniou 11 & Dionisiou Solomou The building is located on a corner plot opposite the Central Police Station of Limassol and next to the Water Tower, which was constructed in 1930 and is considered a symbol of the city and a monument of engineering. The building itself existed, at some form, before 1953. At that year, a number of additions and alterations were made so that two individual buildings were created in the plot, both used as houses. The single-storey house of 1953 consisted of a central hall, a dining room, a corridor, two bedrooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a toilet, a covered veranda, an uncovered veranda and a cellar, presumably at the semi-underground room at the back of the house In 1959, a window at the main north façade of the building was transformed into a door as part of the transformation of a room to a shop. During the 90s, a group of companies bought the plot with the intention of demolishing the two houses and erect a four-storey building with shops and offices. The development was blocked by the Municipality, mainly because of its proximity to the Water Tower. The second house that existed in the plot was eventually demolished sometime after 1998. At the time of its demolition, it was abandoned and in very bad condition. In the area it previously occupied, there is a parking lot today. In 2000 the Municipality acquired the building so that a museum dedicated to the nearby Water Tower is developed. This development was never implemented due to various reasons. Before the acquisition, the building was used as a kindergarten. The building was included in the catalogue of listed buildings in 2003, as a building of urban vernacular architecture with modernist neoclassical elements. The walls, floors, frames and roof of the building follow the trends of its time. The external walls are made of stonework, covered with plaster. The floor of the central room and, partly, the front veranda is made of painted tiles while the rest of the rooms have wooden plank floors. All doors and windows, as well as their frames, are made of wood. The roof consists of timber beams and tiles.