Pancyprian Gymnasium

The Pancyprian Gymnasium is located in the old town of Nicosia, at Archiepiskopou Kyprianou Square and next to several other cultural attractions of the capital of Cyprus.

In front of it are the Folk Art Museum of Cyprus, the Archbishop’s Palace, the Byzantine Museum of Nicosia, the Nicosia Struggle Museum and the Cathedral of Agios Ioannis (St. John’s Cathedral).

Being the oldest secondary school in Cyprus, the Pancyprian Gymnasium was a bastion of Hellenism that contributed decisively to the national liberation struggles with its spiritual action as well as the organized participation of its students in the Greek-Turkish War of 1897, the Balkan wars and the EOKA struggle of 1955-59 against the English. Many famous executives of the island’s political and social life have graduated from here, such as Archbishop Makarios III, the first President of the Republic of Cyprus and Nobel Prize-winning economist of 2010 Christoforos Pissarides.

The building is in itself an attraction, although it is not open to the public, since it still functions as a school to this day. The imposing neoclassical building with a tiled roof and wooden doors and  windows is characterized by the four pillars of the Doric propylaea, with the columns bearing capitals and the pediment at the entrance, as well as the busts of Ioannis Vergopoulos and others on either side of the wooden door in the yard of the building. All these are surrounded by a blooming garden with lots of flowers. Even the interior of the school is adorned with ancient Greek-style statues and marble slabs on the walls that list its benefactors.

The history of the Gymnasium began during the Ottoman domination in 1808, when the monk Ioannikios donated his home for the creation of a school and began – timidly at first – to teach the Greek language to young people. In 1812, the Pancyprian Gymnasium was founded by Archbishop Kyprianos and initially functioned as a high school under the name “Greek School”, dedicated to the Holy Trinity. Following the persecution of 1821 and the hanging of Archbishop Kyprianou, it was dissolved and re-established in 1830 following the decision of the archpriests and the proestoi (local Christian notables) of the island, by Archbishop Panaretos, who created the first library with financial help from the “from London philanthropic Etereia (Company)“. In 1893, on the initiative of Archbishop Sofroniou, the school was upgraded to the sixth grade with the creation of a lyceum, and acquired its current name in 1896. In fact, it was recognized by the Greek Government and the Hellenic Ministry of Education as equivalent to secondary schools in Greece.

During its operation until 1869, in the rooms of this historic building were taught Greek, Turkish, French and mathematics, and in 1887 English was added as a foreign language, while in 1892 began the teaching of Latin. Despite its total destruction in 1920 after a fire, a few months later and with the donation of Ioannis Vergopoulos, the Gymnasium was restored.

In 1927 the new library was inaugurated with a grandiose celebration, and in 1935-36 the women’s section of the Pancyprian Gymnasium was opened, which was housed in the Faneromeni Girls’ School. In 1949, took place the inauguration of the Severios Library, another impressive building that is part of this school, and is officially one of the most abundant libraries in Cyprus.

The Pancyprian Gymnasium, the guardian of Greek education on the island of Aphrodite, has been for decades a model school for all of Cyprus. In its basement, the “Crypt of the Filiki”, in 1821 George Kepiadis, people of the clergy and many of the proestoi, were initiated to the Filiki Eteria (a secret 19th-century organization whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule). On the western wall of the crypt there is a commemorative plaque with the image of Archbishop Kyprianou, painted by the painter Andrea Chrysochou. Tradition says there is an underground passage from this monument to the Archbishopric, which has not yet been revealed.

Pancyprian Gymnasium
Archiepiskopou Kyprianou Square
1060 Nicosia, Cyprus
Phone: 00357 22466711
email: [email protected]