The new Cavafy Archive building on Frynichou Street in Plaka

The C. P. Cavafy Library includes 966 books and other printed items from the poet’s personal collection that were rescued. Michaila Karampini-Iatrou transcribed and edited the library’s catalogue, and the relevant study was published for the first time by Hermes Publishing (2003). In 2024, the Onassis Foundation completed the thorough documentation and digitization of the Cavafy library’s printed items. Following the archive’s digitization in 2019, the poet’s library adds another valuable piece to the puzzle of his life. Selected components of each item were digitized in order to highlight the collection’s singularity and the profile of C. P. Cavafy as a reader. More specifically, digitization included the front covers and key contextual information, handwritten notes, dedications by the poet and other readers, as well as any bookplates and inserts that were traced where possible. Along with the 966 books, pages from printed items related to the poet’s oeuvre were further digitized, such as Cavafian poems and studies or references to Cavafy and his family.

The Cavafy Archive includes five accessible rooms for visitors: one room exhibiting C. P. Cavafy’s personal items, one featuring artifacts, books, and works of art that allude to Cavafy’s oeuvre, a room dedicated to the “Athens of Cavafy,” another featuring contemporary works inspired by the poet, and the Reading Room. The rooms displaying the poet's personal belongings and furniture reflect the ambiance of his private space in Alexandria. Amid family photographs, vases, frames, a copy of his glasses, his desk, and other tiny and large objects, six portraits of the poet by contemporary artists stand out. Unique among the exhibited items are the poet's untouched possessions: his death mask, as well as the first edition of Cavafy's poems, edited by Rica Singopoulo and illustrated by Takis Kalmouchos, which was printed in 1935 following the poet's death.

Following the room that features the poet’s personal items, a new room comes to enrich the fragments of memories from the environment of his home in Alexandria and to augment what is known so far about the poet. Through the poet’s artifact collection, porcelains and ceramics from China, and arabesque furniture made of wood and ivory, we indeed come closer to Cavafy.

In 'The Athens of Cavafy,' the pages from Cavafy's diaries during his trips to Athens stand out, along with a plethora of letters and notes expressing admiration and emotion for the work of the Alexandrian poet by Grigorios Xenopoulos, Ion Dragoumis, Angelos Sikelianos, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Tellos Agras, Napoleon Lapathiotis, and the lawyer and economist Georgios Charitakis, who conveyed Kostis Palamas' praise for Cavafy's work, among others. The hall also includes editions from distinguished Athenian poets and writers with handwritten dedications to Cavafy. Angelos Sikelianos dedicated his 'Τελευταίος Ορφικός Διθύραμβος / The Last Orphic Dithyramb' (1932), Kostas Karyotakis his 'Νηπενθή / Without Sorrow' (1921), Miltiadis Malakasis his 'Αντίφωνα / Antiphonal [Voices]' (1931), Giorgos Theotokas his 'Ώρες αργίας / Leisure Hours' (1931), and Galateia Kazantzakis her '11 π.μ. – 1 μ.μ. κι’ άλλα διηγήματα / 11 am – 1 pm and Other Stories' (1929).

“Cavafy’s house was on the upper floor of an almost low-class and unkempt apartment building. As soon as you entered, you could see a wide corridor flooded with furniture. The walls were nowhere to be seen, as they were fully covered by paintings and, mainly, some shelves or Arabic etageres that bore countless vases—small, large, or even huge ones.”

Giannis A. Saregiannis, “Commentaries on Cavafy” [in Greek], Ikaros Publishing, 1964

In the same space, we can also further explore the poet’s profile as a reader through a selection of the 966 books from the poet’s library that have survived to the present day. From the Latin edition of Aristotle’s “Politics” (1556), decorated with the royal coat of arms of Mary I of Scotland, to the first of twelve volumes of Edward Gibbon’s historical study “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” (1820) in English, to the Bible in an English translation (1877), to the Quran (1886) in a Greek translation, to A. Conan Doyle’s crime stories collection “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” (1895), and “Popular Stories Collected by the Brothers Grimm” (1915). Some of these books even bear Cavafy’s CPC stamp.

Finally, in the same room, a series of paintings shed ample light on the poet’s relations with his contemporaries, such as Theodoros Rallis, one of the most eminent Greek Orientalist painters, who maintained a studio in Cairo and appeared to have developed a unique artistic communication with the poet, as well as later artists, such as Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, who had never met Cavafy but savored his poetry. The former also illustrated and edited a collection of Cavafy’s poems published in 1966 by Ikaros Publishing.

In the newly inaugurated room of the building, modern-day artists create works inspired by the life and work of C.P. Cavafy. How does the poet converse with contemporary visual and film artists? How does the poet’s oeuvre and figure, as well as the Cavafian environment of Alexandria, surface through works and commissions by the Onassis Foundation? Through eight video works from the “Visual Cavafy” project and the handmade book that was read collectively by the audience during the performance “Constantinopoliad,” first presented at the “Archive of Desire” festival in New York in the spring of 2023, we witness the global and timeless influence of the poet, 160 years after his birth anniversary. The works on display at Frynichou Street unfold their storylines around Cavafy’s life and Alexandria—where the newly restored Cavafy House is located—carving a path of communication between the stories these two buildings are eager to share with us.

The Reading Room in the building on Frynichou Street serves as a meeting space for the public with Cavafy's physical archive. Within this area, two sections of artworks are hosted. In the 'Portraits of Cavafy' section, the Alexandrian poet is presented through the eyes of eminent Greek and international artists in six unique portraits by Nikos Engonopoulos, David Levine, Giorgos Ioannou, Sotiris Sorogas, Aria Komianou, and Yannis Kyriakidis. On the other hand, the section "Egyptiotes painters" invites us to imagine everyday life in Alexandria in the era of C. P. Cavafy through ten artworks created by contemporary with the poet Egyptiotes, i.e., Egyptian Greek painters, which capture fragments of life in the city where he was born and lived himself.

Cavafy Archive
Frynichou 16B, Plaka, 10558

Working hours: Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday, 11:00-18:00
Free entrance
Info: +30 210 3713 000

All visits to the Cavafy Archive for research purposes are scheduled upon submitting a request on this contact form.
The space is not yet accessible for people with disabilities.

Peter Jeffreys
Associate Professor of English at Suffolk University, Boston, USA

Amalia Pappa
Deputy Director General, General State Archives (G.S.A.), Greece

Gonda Van Steen
Professor, Koraes Chair in the Centre for Hellenic Studies and Department of Classics at King’s College London, UK

Stathis Gourgouris
Professor of Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, New York, USA

Maria Boletsi
Endowed Professor of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Amsterdam (Marilena Laskaridis Chair) and Associate Professor in Comparative Literature at Leiden University, The Netherlands

Martha Vassiliadi
Assistant Professor of Philology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Bart Soethaert
Principal Investigator at the Cluster of Excellence “Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective” (EXC 2020) and post-doctoral researcher at Frei Universität Berlin, Germany

Amalia Pappa
Deputy Director General of the General State Archives (G.S.A.), Greece

Peter Jeffreys
Associate Professor of English at Suffolk University, Boston, USA

Christina Dounia
Professor Emerita of Modern Greek Literature at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

Takis Kayalis
Professor of Modern Greek Literature at the Hellenic Open University, Greece

Vicente Fernández González
Associate Professor of Translation and Interpreting (Modern Greek) at the University of Malaga, Spain

Design & Curation
Flux-office: Eva Manidaki, Thanassis Demiris, Efthymios Dougkas

Flux-office Collaborators: Ismini Linthorst, Eleni Arapostathi

Lighting Design
Eleftheria Deko

Construction of Exhibition Units
Sirigos Deluxe Furniture

Construction of Special Lighting
Athanasios Kalkanis

Conservation of Artworks
Athens Art Conservation: Archondia Adamopoulou, Evgenia Stamatopoulou

Hanging of Artworks
Christos Stefanidis
Eirini Panagioti

Technical Advisor
Pantelis Stefanis

Project Development Manager
Marianna Christofi

Project Coordination
Vlassis Adraktas Rentis
Eleanna Semitelou

Building Restoration Contractor
K. I. Papadopoulos Ltd.

ONASSIS CULTURE

Director of Culture
Afroditi Panagiotakou

Deputy Director of Culture
Dimitris Theodoropoulos

ONASSIS EDUCATION

Executive Director & Director of Education
Efi Tsiotsiou

Project Development Manager
Marianna Christofi

Cavafy Archive Researcher
Angeliki Mousiou

Educational Projects Coordinator
Eleanna Semitelou