Archbishopric seeks permit to refit Phaneromeni school for University of Cyprus archaeologists

The Archbishopric of Cyprus has asked for planning permission to restore the old Phaneromeni school inside the Venetian walls of Nicosia, a building now earmarked for the University of Cyprus department of history and archaeology. The application also turns the basketball court behind it into a public square and upgrades the 123-space car park beneath. Engineers from the Archbishopric and from the university will run the project jointly.

Architecture was the first intended tenant. In April 2021 the government, the church, the university and Nicosia Municipality signed a memorandum under which the state would lease the school from the Archbishopric on the university's behalf. The architecture department, in cramped rented rooms on Ledra Street since 2005, welcomed the move as a way to keep the university in the old town. The architects wanted laboratories, seminar rooms and postgraduate space the old building could not hold, and the scheme stalled. In November 2025 Archbishop Georgios said the finance ministry had decided against paying for a new building behind the school.

This January the university put forward history and archaeology, a department of about 200 students, in place of architecture. The Archbishop said the church wanted "a solution that ensures the arrival of many students". Finance Minister Makis Keravnos has since confirmed that the department is the one due to move in.

The university has taught archaeology since 1992, when Vassos Karageorghis took up its first chair in the subject and became director of its Archaeological Research Unit.