Nea Paphos Conservation and Management Project

Cyprus has always been a major crossroads, absorbing and transmitting influences between East and West. It has equally been a place of strategic and economic interest to the competing powers in the region. After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BCE, Cyprus was annexed by Ptolemy, inheritor of Egypt. With a good harbor and timber in the surrounding hills for shipbuilding, Paphos was an important naval base. In the second century BCE it became the capital and administrative center for the island.

Cyprus was annexed by Rome in 58 BCE as the Roman Empire began its expansion eastward, becoming a province of Rome in 22 BCE with its capital at Nea Paphos. The city remained the political center of Cyprus until the 4th century CE, when power was transferred to the eastern part of the island. Nea Paphos continued to be of importance, however, as Christianity gained ascendancy and left its imprint on the culture and the built environment. The Christian identity of the city manifested itself through the late Byzantine and Medieval periods, especially under Frankish rule of the crusader era.

The well-defined archaeological core, known as the archaeological park, covers 950,000 square meters and includes the most important remains from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Although much of the Hellenistic city was destroyed by earthquakes and extensive Roman rebuilding, the impressive rock-cut foundations of the city wall, gates, towers, and ramps, several significant buildings, as well as important black and white pebble mosaics, survive from this period.

Paphos' status as the capital of the Roman province is seen in the palatial building complex known as the Villa of Theseus (home of the Roman governor) and in the large private residences that were decorated with the magnificent mosaics for which the site is now best known and which give their names to the residences. This part of the site also includes the Agora, an Odeon for performances (ancient and contemporary), a historic lighthouse (1888) still in use, the Medieval fortress of Saranda Kolones, and many other buildings, cave sanctuaries, and features.

Beyond the core area, separated by a modern commercial street, are additional archaeological remains and historic structures, all interspersed with the traditional and modern buildings of the old city. These include a theater of the Hellenistic-Roman period, monuments of the early Christian, Byzantine, and medieval periods and extensive underground chambers and quarries of the Fabrika site. In the 4th century, Christianity began to have a major influence on the spiritual life and physical fabric of the city. This can be seen in the largest early-Christian church in Cyprus, the seven-aisled basilica of Chrysopolitissa, decorated with mosaic pavements.

The third part of the Nea Paphos site, on the coast two kilometers north of the archaeological core, are the so-called Tombs of the Kings, whose construction coincides with Ptolemaic rule in Cyprus in the Hellenistic period. The excavation of the bedrock to create the tombs provided building stone for Paphos.

Livia Alberti, Lori Anglin, Skevi Christodoulou, Tobit Curteis, Hugh Broughton Architects, Demetrios Michaelides, Odgers Conservation Consultants, Silvio Augusto Rusmigo

Former team members: Martha Demas, Senior Project Specialist, Project Manager; Michalis Constantinou, Getty Graduate Intern (2022–2023); Marie Pype, Getty Graduate Intern (2018–2019)