Collaborative effort signed between Neapolis University and Petrideio Institute

A collaborative effort has been signed into accord between Neapolis University in Cyprus and the Petrithiou Institute. The two signatories have agreed to combine their efforts in promoting research into the “History and Civilisation of Paphos” and her Greater Region. In light of this development, the Master in History at Neapolis University launched a research program titled “The Paphian Press circa 1878-1960”. The research program will fall under the guidance and supervision of Prof. Georgios Georgis, esteemed professor of Modern History at Neapolis University in Cyprus.

The research program focuses on eleven newspapers and two magazines which were in circulation in Paphos between 1906 and 1960 for either short or extended periods of time. The program will look into the publications publishers, their various contributors, as well as the era’s printing houses.

The first phase of the project has lasted several months and is nearing completion. Original documents obtained from the registers of the Cypriot National Archives and the Cypriot Press and Information Office in Nicosia were collected and organised categorically. Additional research materials were also obtained from the Historical Archives in Limassol and from Cypriot newspapers kept in the library of the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation (the former “Library of the Faneromenis”), as well as the library of the National Archaeological Museum in Nicosia.

The second and final part of the research project will involve studying, analyzing and amalgamating the collected material into a single volume outlining the development and distinct characteristics of each respective medium (newspapers, magazines). The final volume hopes to become a valued source of information for the citizens of Paphos highlighting a series of historically relevant information. Emphasis will be given to the era’s prominent local figures, disputes and recriminations, and everyday activities, interests, professions, and economic circumstances of the Paphian people. Their local governance, police, lawyers and judges, active political movements and the prevailing socio-political “Zeitgeist” of time and sociological issues of the region’s Christian and Islamic populations of all classes during the time of British Rule. The final volume will combine all of aforementioned using the era’s media outlets as a historical template to knowing and understanding the events which preoccupied Cypriot, and more specifically Paphian Society of the time.

The project is expected to be finished by the end of this year.