Welcome to The Sylvia Ioannou Foundation

A warm welcome to the homepage of the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation!

The Foundation is owner of one of the great private collections of books and maps devoted to the island of Cyprus.

The core of the collection is printed descriptions of the island, published from the very dawn of European printing, in 1475, through to 1964, when the island, for the first time in its long, and often sad, history achieved self-rule.

While many of the items were acquired in the full glare of publicity, as a private collection, the many treasures and rarities of the collection have never been fully unveiled to the public.

The Foundation has been established with the guiding principle of opening the collection to public access; this website has been established as an introduction to the many items in the collection - over two thousand books and over 600 atlases and maps.

So, we invite you to “enter” this website and experience the history of Cyprus!