Filenews 10 April 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The tourist coastal area of Pafos is transformed into a huge "open museum", which offers in practice what the people in charge of the tourism sector proclaim to the fullest extent: Not only sun and sea.
With the ongoing unification of its archaeological sites, Kato Pafos translates in practice the concept of an "open museum", as we first met it during the city's operation as the European Capital of Culture a few years ago. One of her most popular projects, last of "Paphos 2017", was precisely the "Open Museum". An action created in the nature of Kato Pafos, with the construction and placement of works of art by artists in public places. This is the action "Signs in Time and Space", which includes a total of 12 creations, which were placed in various parts of Kato Pafos, thus creating an open museum in the city.
A geometric marble installation, the "Aspects of Vastness" by Haris Paspallis, the symbol of Cyprus, Aphrodite on a rock as the "Other Sun" by Yiota Ioannidou, the fisherman in Her Bathrooms and the red "Poppy" by Andreas Paraskevas, which emerges between the Lighthouse and the sea, are some of the works that have been installed on the western coastal front of Kato Pafos, giving the city another interesting perspective.
The interventions of the artists who have installed works are complemented by Andreas Makariou, Umit Inatcsi and Dimitris Makariou, creating sculptures and visual works in open spaces, giving a new dimension to the open cultural factory as an idea and further development in the philosophy of the "Open Workshop".
The ambition with these projects was to put Pafos on the map of those cities with interesting and charming reference points for both its residents and visitors, a goal pointed out by the officials that was achieved and more than achieved if we take into account the popularity and visitation of these structures, three years after the operation of the city as a cultural navel of the old continent.
Five years since then, the goal has been achieved. The thousands of visitors, who flock to Paphos again after the two years of restrictions and exclusions of the pandemic, enjoy their stay here not only admiring during their walks on the coastal front and the archaeological sites these projects, but also having the enriched experience offered by the unification of the archaeological sites.
Kato Pafos, as a permanent "Open Museum", is also defined by its archaeological treasures, which in contrast to those housed in the Archaeological Museum of Pafos, in the centre of the city, are exposed (literally and figuratively) throughout its coastline. Thousands of visitors to the tourist area daily in the summers and hundreds every other time of the year, have the unique privilege to tour a huge city of antiquities, characterized entirely as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and to walk in the footsteps of the ancient Greeks of this place.
The total project of the unification of the antiquities of Kato Pafos extends over an area of 20 thousand square meters and now includes the overhead footbridge that is already installed, three squares, pedestrian streets, special routes and more.
Unique natural beauty
The slogan "not only sun and sea", nowhere finds better application than Kato Pafos. The visitor can enjoy the unique natural beauty of the landscape by taking a walk in the two large pedestrian streets that have been constructed in recent years and cover the entire coastal front to the east and west with the imposing Medieval Castle in the harbour as a meeting point.
At the same time, he can swim by sea literally swimming in the midst of antiquities and visual works, such as one of the 12 aforementioned works, which due to the location in which it was created is the most prominent of the 12: The little fisherman who dominates the Municipal Baths of Kato Pafos and is a photographic point for capturing moments of relaxation and carefreeness of thousands of visits.
The walk in Kato Pafos is not limited to enjoying the sea next to the walker or the coffee and the drink in the hundreds of recreation centres of the pier and the port. It is combined with a tour of the huge Archaeological Park, which starts right next to the entrance of the land area of the port and extends to the Tombs of the Kings. Or by visiting the Castle, from where a unique panoramic feeling of the whole of Kato Pafos is provided.
These comparative advantages of Pafos over all other tourist areas are expected to become even more obvious this summer, when the unification of the archaeological sites is completed. With the visitors of the city then having the unique privilege of hiking at a distance of many kilometres between world heritage monuments, artistic interventions that give another air to a tourist area and natural landscape of unique beauty.
