CP Cavafy archive permanently housed in the Plaka district
Inaugurated at the end of November by the Greek president during in the 160th anniversary of the poet's birth, the archive holds over 2,000 artifacts including manuscripts of poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary works, articles, studies and notes by the poet, and his personal archive of correspondence, documents, and photographs. CP Cavafy himself collected and archived his work on a systematic basis. It also includes 966 books from his library and personal objects, as well as paintings referring to him.
Its digitization was completed in 2019 in Greek and English, and the public may access it at the site https://cavafy.onassis.org/.
The exhibition of part of the archive is divided into three rooms: one with Cavafy's personal items, one devoted to Cavafy's relationship with Athens, and a Reading Room. The archive and its library are in a specially design space within the building.
Onassis Foundation president Antonis S. Papadimitriou said that the archive had been amassed by Hellenic studies professor George P. Savvidis, and purchased from Manolis Savvidis. "The Cavafy Archive is constantly enriched with new acquisitions," Papadimitriou said, "and we could purchase and show a great number of the poet's authentic furniture and decorative objects that were transported to Greece by Alekos and Rika Segopoulou, his inheritors." These objects were acquired by the Foundation from the Trechantzakis family who inherited them.
The purpose is not to create a lifeless museum, he said, but to create a sense of the poet's life. The Archive's mission is to provide free and open access to researchers as well as the wider public, and to promote Cavafy’s work and the international character of his poetry through the digitisation and complete re-documentation of the archive’s materials.
Cavafy Archive
Frynichou 16B, Plaka, 10558
Working hours: Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday, 11:00-18:00 (entrance is free)
Info: +30 210 3713 000
