Cavafy Museum is an apartment museum in center

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

, which formerly was the residence of the Greek poet

Constantine P. Cavafy Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Πέτρου Καβάφης ; April 29 (April 17, OS), 1863 – April 29, 1933), known, especially in English, as Constantine P. Cavafy and often published as C. P. Cavafy (), was a Gree ...

, where he lived most of his life.

Location

The apartment is located near Cairo Opera House (Fouad St.), in Attarin division, Alexandria. The street name was ''Lepsius'' during Cavafy's life; it was renamed ''Sharm El Sheikh'', then after the museum was opened, the narrow and short street became ''Cavafy Street'', which is quite close to two of the city's most important streets, Fouad St. and Safiya Zaghloul St.

Opening

The museum started as an initiative approached by Kostis Moskof, who was the cultural attaché at the Greek Embassy in Cairo, and then by the support of businessman G. Stratigakis and other cultural bodies. The apartment was leased by The Cavafy International Committee in 1991, and opened to the public on 16 November 1992. The entrance was free until 2014. Now the tickets are 15 L.E. and 5 L.E. for students.

Background

There are other museums dedicated to Cavafy in other cities, including a newly opened museum in

Plaka, Athens Pláka ( el, Πλάκα) is the old historical neighborhood of Athens, clustered around the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis, and incorporating labyrinthine streets and neoclassical architecture. Plaka is built on top of the residenti ...

. The poet and his living place were mentioned many times in Lawrence Durrell's ''Alexandria Quartet'', and ''Where the Tigers Were: Travels through Literary Landscapes'' by Don Meredith.

Collections

The small-size museum displays letters, notes and poems written by Cavafy, Many portraits, drawings and photographs of Cavafy and close friends, a room dedicated to writer and close friend

Stratis Tsirkas Stratis may refer to: * Stratis (configuration daemon), a user-level file system for Linux * Stratis (Greyhawk), a deity from the Greyhawk campaign setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' fantasy role-playing game * Ai Stratis or Agios Efstratios ( ...

as it was his room when he lived with Cavafy for some time. The apartment has many published books and papers on the author, including many translations in Greek, Arabic, English and other 15 languages, and more than 3,000 scholarly articles.

Gallery

AlexCavafyMuseum.jpg, A room contains a posthumous portrait of Cavafy and portraits of friends. Alexandria - The Kavafy Museum, 1995.jpg, A room in Cavafy museum with a balcony. Αlexandria - The Kavafy Museum 02, 1995.jpg, A room contains a bed and a closet, along with portraits of Cavafy. AlexCavafyHouse.jpg, Building of Cavafy's apartment-museum in Alexandria.

References

{{coord, 31.197582, 29.90128, type:landmark_region:EG, display=title Museums in Alexandria Biographical museums in Egypt Museums established in 1991 1991 establishments in Egypt