Paphos Life

On our travels around Cyprus we have often stumbled across numerous random statues and quirky art exhibits. We first happened upon Lemba Art College in 2016, and if you like quirky art it is a must see location. We re-visited a couple of weeks ago and are pleased to see that the college is still a work in progress, as these photos will show...

Read the article and chat about it below...
 

I love the art college, and have been watching it evolve over the last 15 years or so.

What a lot of people don't know is that back in the 60s, Lemba was a Turkish Cypriot village. They left and the village was empty for a while. Then Greek Cypriots moved in. This was all before 1974 so wasn't to do with the invasion/peace initiative.

The building at the centre of the art college used to be the schoolroom and mosque back in the day.

Were ancient Cypriots nomadic? I can't get over their readiness to up-sticks and move villages en-masse. And likewise, I am not referring to the invasion.

And even when I can get why they move, sometimes I can't fathom their choice of an alternative location.

Take Theletra, I can understand why a village would want to move from under a huge great cliff after a big earthquake. But really, why would they choose to move directly above that cliff? Surely it would make more sense to move closer to the middle of the valley, or did they really hate the B7 that much?

Crikey, what a find, Dominic! Brilliant photos and commentary as always. Thanks for your time and effort spent in compiling your blogs, then sharing them!

AL

Not a find for yours truly Alan.

We lived just over the road in Lemba from the art collage (well a converted stone house) for two years at my daughters, I got to know some of the resident artists, and what they produce, it is an acquired taste but they were very nice folks, also remember Lemba pottery shop some really nice work done by them, The Lemba webcam is only meters from the centre of the village.

A fact some may not know is basically Lemba is built on Turkish land so you cannot buy unfortunately (As I did ask) a Lemba property, you cannot get Title deeds even if you did, it is a designated Refugee village as my Cypriot family who live there indeed are, maybe something some members did not realise.