Exhibition extension until 13.03 2024
Temporary Exhibition Hall

After the success of the monumental centenary exhibition Asia Minor Hellenism: Heyday – Catastrophe – Displacement – Rebirth, co-organised by the Benaki Museum and the Centre for Asia Minor Studies in Athens (Benaki Museum / Pireos 138), the A. G. Leventis Gallery is co-organising and hosting part of this exhibition in Cyprus, which highlights the culture and unfolds the chronicle of Hellenism in Asia Minor. The exhibition is enriched with heirlooms and testimonies from the refugees who settled and started a new life in Cyprus.

More than 500 exhibits and photographs will shed light on the heyday of Hellenism before the persecutions and the dramatic period from 1919 to 1923, as well as the settlement and integration of refugees in Cyprus.

The visitor begins the journey to the splendour of Hellenism in Asia Minor (first part) from Ionia and the western coastline, proceeds to Cappadocia and the southern provinces, continues by crossing Pontos to return westwards, around Constantinople, ending up in Eastern Thrace.

The era of prosperity is followed by the period of persecutions, the end of World War I and the treaties, the period of the Greek landing in Smyrna and the Asia Minor Campaign, the Catastrophe of 1922 and the Exodus of the refugees (second part).

The third and final part of the exhibition focusses on the settlement and integration of emigrants in Cyprus.

This chronicle is described through images, ecclesiastical, military and personal items, clothing, jewellery, handicrafts, maps, photographs, archival and film material, newspapers, letters, cards and many other documents. The narrative is complemented by excerpts from personal testimonies and memories, bringing the images and ‘silent’ objects to life.

The exhibition is curated by:
Evita Arapoglou – Curator of the Greek Collection of the A. G. Leventis Gallery.
Despina Christofidou – Assistant Curator of the A. G. Leventis Gallery.