The THALASSA Agia Napa Municipal was opened in August 2005 and it is directed by the Pierides Foundation, in association with the Hellenic Institute for the Preservation of Nautical Tradition and the Tornaritis-Pierides Marine Life Foundation.
The Museum is located at the centre of Agia Napa and it has the sea as a subject-matter. It is the first museum of its kind across the Mediterranean region with main principle to present to the audiences, the local and foreign visitors, the impact and the significance of the sea upon the history of Cyprus, from pale ontological to prehistoric periods until present times.
The museum is a three story building made by marble, onyx, wood, metal and offers unique experiences appealing to all our senses with its ‘bird eye view’. It incorporates six levels and the exhibits are presented with four different methods: in underground showcases, where the visitors are able to walk and view the objects from the top or in modern showcases. Other exhibits are freely placed in the museum whereas other they are hanging from the roof. All exhibits are spotlighted by fibre optics.
At the museum the visitor gets informed from audiovisual panels on all the historical periods of the island throughout the centuries and could admired Cypriot antiquities, which cover 7000 years, from the Neolithic period to the Venetian rule (5000 B.C. to 1600 A.D.). Among the most important exhibits are a composite vase with vertical handle of red polished ware of the Early Bronze Age III (2100-1900 B.C.), a spectacular clay model of a ship with sailors and captain of the Cypro-Archaic II period (600- 480 B.C.) and four red figured plates decorated with fish of the Classical and Hellenistic periods (475-30 B.C.); and the replica of a Mesolithic (9000 B.C.) papyrus vessel, which was used for obsidian carrying. The main exhibit of the museum, it is the ‘Kyrenia II’ vessel, a life size exact replica of the ancient ship of Kyrenia, of the Classical period (400 B.C.), which was built in 1985 for scientific experimental purposes. Moreover, the visitor walks on an exciting glass floor, where a reconstruction of the old shipwreck is displayed and a documentary film is screened, about the excavations of the ancient ship and the preservation of it, which took place in the now occupied castle of Kyrenia.
Furthermore, the museum hosts pale-ontological exhibits, which include fossilised fishes, shells, corals, ammonites and stuffed sea animals such as fishes, mammals, turtles, seal, corals, sea-urchins, starfish, sponges, marine plants and others found in various parts of the island.
An attractively designed cafeteria, a gift shop, an open air amphitheatre for the summer that serves the community for concerts, dances and other cultural performances; and a multipurpose hall for periodic shows, educational programmes, lectures, seminars and workshops, supplement this contemporary Municipal museum complex.
