LIM_1075

Address: Agiou Andreou 253 & Othonos kai Amalias The two-storey building was constructed at the beginning of the 1920s. It used to accommodate two individual residences, one in each floor. Its main façade is symmetrical and on the Agiou Andreou street. The entrance to the first floor is possible via a stone staircase at the side of the building. The façades of the building are of very elaborate construction with numerus decorative stone elements. The architect-constructor who designed them tried to mimic the neoclassical models, already used in the public buildings of the period. In addition, at the centre of the main façade, a stereotype of Limassol’s bourgeois dwellings was reproduced: the loggia, behind a balcony which is supported by elaborate corbels. Particular attention was also given on the carved stone decorative details above the roof which can be found on the centre of the main façade and on the four corners. During the first decades of its life, the building’s use was residential. It was later bought by Ioannis Schizas, a merchant dealer from Alexandria. Schizas rented the first floor to the family of Ioannis Kolakides and this is where his son Fotis Kolakides, architect and future Limassol mayor during the period 1973-1986, was raised up. In 1958, Schizas donated the building to the Municipality and it was used as the Municipal Nursing Home. It was included in the catalogue of listed buildings in 1984 and in 1985, during Kolakides’ mayorship, its full renovation was completed in order for the ground floor to house the Folk-Art Museum and the first floor the Theatre Archives. The restoration project received the Europa Nostra award in 1988. Today, the Museum can still be found on the ground floor while the first floor is the seat of the Culture Services of the Municipality.