Description:
Address: 28is Oktovriou 257
The building was constructed some time before 1878, during the Ottoman period in Cyprus, and before the construction of the nearby St. Catherine’s catholic church. The construction of the church was completed in 1879, although the Franciscan monastery, just behind the church, was already built. John Thompson includes a photo of the building in his collection ‘Through Cyprus with the camera in the autumn of 1878 ’. Today, its main façade is on the seafront avenue of Limassol.
In its original form the building had a protruding covered wooden balcony -the so-called sahnisi- on the front façade of the first floor, and had the exact same topology with the building attached on its west side. The balcony was covered by a tiled canopy, supported on timber diagonals. The front door had a pointed lintel. During this period, the building was probably used as a wine cellar and shop, on the ground floor, and as a residence, at the first floor. A number of pointed arches in its interior supported the horizontal elements.
In the interwar period, the front door lintel was replaced with a horizontal one.
Some time, definitely before the start of the 1960s, the sunshade canopy was removed.
During the 1960s, the wooden balcony was demolished and replaced by a reinforced concrete cantilever. In addition, a number of walls were erected in the interior of the ground floor in order for the large space to be divided into smaller rooms and a number of rooms on the back side, on both floors, were demolished and rebuilt. This is related to the transformation of the ground floor to a separate house. At that time, a number of other changes -probably related to the widening of Ierousalim st.- were proposed for the east façade of the building, that were never implemented.
A number of the arches were, at some point, replaced by classic-looking architectural elements.
At some point, the attached identical building was demolished and an apartment block was erected on its position.
The building has a large back yard, surrounded by a stone fencing.
A rare pebbled floor can be still found today at the ground level.
It was included in the catalogue of listed buildings in 1992.
It used to be the house of the consul of Spain, Leonidas Papadopoulos, hence it was known as ‘The consul’s house’ in the local community. His daughter, Konstantia, and his son, the actor Christos Papadopoulos, donated the property to the Municipality of Limassol. Their wish was to establish a museum at the ground floor, a research and culture centre at the first floor and a public park at the large backyard.
