Onassis Foundation has restored Cavafy House in Alexandria

Can you imagine the small office where C. P. Cavafy wrote his poems? The balcony on which he dreamed of tomorrow and reminisced about yesterday? The neighborhood in which he walked through in the center of Alexandria? His apartment on the former Rue Lepsius? Onassis Foundation has restored Cavafy House in Alexandria, in partnership with the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, turning it into a destination that attracts visitors from every corner of the world. Cavafy’s past in Alexandria now converses with the present and future of his work at the Cavafy Archive in Athens.

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Starting with the acquisition of the Cavafy archive in 2012, its digitization and disposal to the public and researchers in 2019, and the housing of the Cavafy Archive in the area of Plaka in 2023, which includes the physical archive and library of the poet as well as a collection of personal items and artworks with references to the poet himself, the Onassis Foundation undertook at the beginning of 2022 the restoration of the Cavafy House in Alexandria, in partnership with the Hellenic Foundation for Culture. On May 11, 2024, the Cavafy House opens its doors to the public with the aim of becoming a pole of attraction for visitors from all over the world. Under the architectural design of Flux-office by Eva Manidaki and Thanassis Demiris, the place where C. P. Cavafy lived most of his life and created so many of the works that made him a universal poet has been restored and reconfigured in order to highlight the image of the residence as it was in the years the poet lived, to illuminate his relationship with the city of Alexandria and the impact of his work to this day, but also to transport us back in time. Images of his biography take shape in an apartment in the center of Alexandria. The journey of the Cavafy archive is being realized with the invaluable aid of the Archive’s nine-member scientific committee and the advisory scientific committees for individual works.

The President of the Onassis Foundation, Mr. Anthony S. Papadimitriou, and the President of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Mr. Nikos A. Koukis, welcomed the President of the Hellenic Republic, Ms. Katerina Sakellaropoulou, who inaugurated the restored Cavafy House, in the presence of the Minister of Culture, Ms. Lina Mendoni, the Consul General of Alexandria, Mr. Ioannis Pyrgakis, the Greek Ambassador in Cairo, Mr. Nikolaοs Papageorgiou, the scientific committee of the Cavafy Archive, the Board of Directors of the Onassis Foundation, a delegation of members of the Board of Directors of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, the Director of Culture of the Onassis Foundation, Ms. Afroditi Panagiotakou, the Director of Education of the Onassis Foundation, Ms. Effie Tsiotsiou, and the representative of the Cavafy Archive, Ms. Marianna Christofi.

P. Cavafy moved to this apartment at what was then 10 Rue Lepsius (now 4 Rue C. P. Cavafy, formerly Rue Sharm El Shiekh) in 1907. The building was probably erected during the first decade of the 20th century, between 1905 and 1910. It stands as an example of the eclectic architectural style that prevailed in Alexandria during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Cavafy during the first year lived together with his older brother Paul. The following year, Paul retired and moved permanently to France, to the town of Hyères, and from then on, the poet lived here alone. After his death, the building functioned as a boarding house named Amir, among other uses.

The street where the Cavafy House is located was called Lepsius during Cavafy’s era but was later renamed to C. P. Cavafy to honor the Greek poet. The building was surrounded by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Greek Hospital, and the city’s brothels, which Cavafy christened the “Temple of the Soul,” the “Temple of the Body,” and the “Temple of the Flesh,” respectively.

On November 16, 1992, on the initiative of the historian and writer Kostis Moskoff, cultural attaché at the Greek Embassy in Cairo, the Cavafy Museum was inaugurated in this space. From 1994 to 2020, the Cavafy Museum also hosted the Stratis Tsirkas Room, which was dedicated to the acclaimed Egyptian Greek novelist. A young Tsirkas met C. P. Cavafy and visited him in this apartment during the summer of 1930. Many years later, he wrote two landmark works on the poet, Cavafy and his Era (1958) and The Political Cavafy (1971). On May 11, 2024, the Cavafy House has been reopened to the public, with rooms filled with significant objects that illuminate the life of the world-renowned poet.

The President of the Onassis Foundation, Mr. Anthony S. Papadimitriou, comments: “ The Onassis Foundation and I personally feel extremely proud that our sponsorship led to the restoration of the Cavafy House in Alexandria, in collaboration with the Hellenic Foundation for Culture. It is where Cavafy spent most of his life and created dozens of works in constant dialogue with history. Hence, another “dialogue” begins between Athens and Alexandria, one that carves a singular path of research and further quest. With the restoration of the Cavafy House, the Onassis Foundation equally restores a part of the honor our cultural legacy rightly deserves. At the same time, it widens the spectrum of research possibilities around the future of Cavafy’s poetry. The Cavafy House was never intended nor aspires to be an exact replica of Cavafy’s apartment from so many years ago. Whatever memorabilia, personal and decorative objects we have rescued are, moreover, safely stored in the Cavafy Archive in Athens. In Alexandria, we tried to provide just a glimpse of the Poet’s existence, a sense of his life and the space he inhabited. So, in Alexandria, we have the place where Cavafy lived, and in Athens, the things he lived with.”

President of the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, Nikos A. Koukis, comments: “For the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, the inauguration of the renovated Cavafy House in Alexandria—a demanding project by its nature and one entirely taken under the wings of the Onassis Foundation for its realization—is an event of utmost significance. A landmark of Hellenism beyond the Greek borders and the house where the great Alexandrian poet lived a large part of his life is finally being delivered to the general public, fully restored and with great care given in every detail by a superb and much-experienced team of collaborators of the Onassis Foundation, who worked diligently and methodically for two years, often having to surpass many and unprecedented from the outset obstacles. The collaboration between the Hellenic Foundation for Culture and the Onassis Foundation to operate the Cavafy House was a strategic choice. The outcome fully justifies the intentions behind it, as they transfigured into a tangible and comprehensive reality. The Cavafy House will constitute a life-giving cultural beacon for Greek letters throughout the world. We are handing to all Greeks and Philhellenes a work of singular aesthetic value—indeed, a paradigm work.”

Each room of the Cavafy House bears a title and includes significant heirlooms, faithful copies of documents, works from the Alexandrian poet’s life and oeuvre, as well as contemporary works of art that were chosen with the ceaseless aid of academic advisors for the restored House.

The visitor first comes upon “The Global Poet” room, which includes translations of his oeuvre from all over the world, in chronological order of publications by language, from the 1950s to the present day. Next is the “Alexandria Still” room, which highlights with the use of maps and chronicles the poet’s connection with the city of Alexandria—the quintessential locus of the Cavafian work and life—as well as the ways in which the life and body of work of the poet unfolded and often became influenced by the history of Egypt, culminating on the balcony overlooking Alexandria. The rooms “Genealogy and Personal Life” and “Salon, a Recreation” follow, with the former including diaries, letters, notes, and documents that relate to his family’s genealogical tree and the latter recreating his salon as it was during the time he lived there and welcomed friends and intellectuals—the room also includes furniture from the first phase of the space’s re-operation under Kostis Moskov’s initiative. Right after, the visitor encounters the room “Cavafy Now,” which displays works of art and all the video works from the “Visual Cavafy” series commissioned by the Onassis Foundation as part of the “Archive of Desire” festival in New York in spring 2023, as well as the “In Dialogue” room, which features the mail correspondence of C. P. Cavafy with writers of the time and newspaper clippings about his work. The last two rooms are dedicated to “The Archive” and “The House,” including publications of poems and relevant bibliography from the Cavafy archive collection, as well as the history of the house itself with snapshots of the apartment’s course in time.

The poet’s house, fully restored, is another stop on the journey of the Onassis Foundation, which honors the Alexandrian poet with every new occasion. “Alexandria still,” the poet wrote in his poem “Exiles” (1914). His newly restored balcony awaits visitors to stand where the poet himself stood and gaze at what he saw back then, fostering a breathing connection with the past. The past, present, and future of the poet from Alexandria come together in a building in Athens and, eventually, the entire world.

Thematic Sections of each room explained

The Global Poet

Global and always relevant, C. P. Cavafy is by now one of the most translated Greek poets of his era. The impact of the Alexandrian poet’s work is demonstrated through a translation corpus encompassing his poetic and prose work and extending into more than thirty languages. The journey into the translation world of C. P. Cavafy begins with the first collected edition of his poems, which was published after his death in 1935, edited by Rica Singopoulo and illustrated by Takis Kalmouchos. This is copy 210 of 2,030 in total on Madagascar Lafuma Vélin paper.

“Alexandria Still”

Throughout his life, C. P. Cavafy conversed with Alexandria. The poet’s relationship with the city is illuminated through twenty-one landmarks related to his life and work placed on a reconstructed map of the 1920s. Some of these—like traces of the poet’s presence in the city—continue to exist in its urban landscape. At the same time, the life and work of C. P. Cavafy are presented through a timeline that outlines the historical context in which the man and the poet were shaped as he lived and dreamed of Alexandria.

Genealogy and Personal Life

The lineage of the poet was a subject that concerned him greatly, as evidenced by the archival documents “Genealogical Gossip or Various Bits of the History of Our Father’s and Mother’s Family Thrown Together” and “Genealogical Tableau of the Cavafy Family.” The passports of his parents, Hariclia and Peter John, are indeed an indisputable testament to the family’s cosmopolitan and hybrid social identity: a combination of Phanariot origins, multinational business ventures, and Anglo-Greek cultural orientation. The poet’s personal life unfolds through a selection of archival documents, including diary entries, letter correspondence, ephemera, professional documents, and books from his library.

Salon, a Recreation

A recreation of the poet’s living room, where C. P. Cavafy welcomed his guests, such as Nikos Kazantzakis, Myrtiotissa, Kostas Ouranis, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and E. M. Forster. Some of the furniture in the space is a replica of those originally owned by the poet, while other objects have been maintained from the original furnishings of the Cavafy House when it was inaugurated in 1992 under the initiative of Kostis Moskov. A selection of books relevant to those preserved in the poet’s library can be found on the shelves.

Cavafy Now

How does the poet converse with contemporary visual and film artists? How are the work, the figure of the poet, and the Cavafian environment of Alexandria portrayed? A series of eight video works, commissioned by the Onassis Foundation in the framework of the “Archive of Desire” festival in New York in the spring of 2023, are presented in the space of the Cavafy House. Among them are works by great visual artists such as Yannis Kyriakides and Farida El Gazzar.

The room includes works created by directors Evi Kalogiropoulou (“Alexandria”), Park (“Far Away,” “Morning Sea,” “Ithaca,” “Waiting for the Barbarians,” “The Footsteps”) Christos Sarris (“Walls”) in collaboration with incarcerated individuals in Greece, and artists Jad Abumrad and Mac Premo (“Voices”). Performers include Laurie Anderson (“Voices”); Taylor Mac (“Ithaca,” “Waiting for the Barbarians”); Julianne Moore (“Far Away,” “Morning Sea”); Carl Hancock Rux with Daniel Bernard Roumain, Bora Yoon, and Jeffrey Ziegler (“The Footsteps”); with contributions from Dan Bora (“Morning Sea”), Justin Ervin (“The Footsteps,” “The Footsteps”), Robert Huott (“Far Away”) Garth MacAleavey (“The Footsteps”), Steven E. Mallorca (“The Footsteps,” “Waiting for the Barbarians”), Heather Lea Poole (“Far Away”), Bruce Steinberg (“The Footsteps”), and Pete Scalzitti (“Ithaca,” “Waiting for the Barbarians,” “Far Away,” “Morning Sea”). The films also feature new music and arrangements from Laura Jane Grace (“Walls”), Alexander MacSween (“Waiting for the Barbarians”), and Caroline Shaw (“Morning Sea”).

In Dialogue

The walls of the room are endowed with a selection of archival documents of correspondence between C. P. Cavafy and his contemporaries, as well as newspaper clippings, all of them shedding light on the network of contacts, the appreciation of the poet’s literary value, and the recognition by his peers from all over the world. In addition, archival documents reveal the poet’s stance and identity as a Greek Egyptiot. At the main table, eight works by Greek and foreign writers and artists (Bertolt Brecht, Lawrence Durell, E. M. Forster, Edward Said, Yannis Ritsos, Yannis Tsarouchis, Nikos Hatzikyriakos-Ghika, J. M. Coetzee), detail the reception and enduring impact of the Cavafian work as it materializes in the works of others.

The Archive

P. Cavafy compiled and archived his work on a systematic basis, hence creating a unique literary and personal archive. The Cavafy archive includes manuscripts of his poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary texts, articles, studies, and notes by the poet, as well as extensive letter correspondence, texts, and photographs. The Cavafy archive came under the management of the Onassis Foundation at the end of 2012, a development that safeguarded its preservation in Greece while preventing its potential fragmentation. Following its digitization and full documentation, the digital collection of the Cavafy archive was published in March 2019 in Greek and English, rendering the archive accessible to all. In November 2023, the Onassis Foundation secured a permanent space for the Cavafy Archive at 16b Frynichou Street in the area of Plaka, open to the public and researchers alike.

The House

A selection of snapshots from the history of the apartment where the poet lived from 1907 to the end of his life, as it has been shaped from 1933 to the present day. The space of the apartment is revealed as an exhibit in need of preservation and restoration, an initiative that the Onassis Foundation has undertaken in collaboration with the Hellenic Foundation for Culture. In the spring of 2024, the restored Cavafy House will open its doors to the public anew.

The work of the Cavafy Archive Scientific Committee

The main role of the nine-member Committee, which is comprised of academics from the disciplines of Philology, Archiving, and Digital Humanities who exhibit an extensive bibliography on Cavafian research, is to plan the scientific and research activities of the Archive, to manage its scientific resources and capacities, to monitor the Archive’s impact on particular audiences and the wider public, to submit proposals for cultural and educational activities, and to promote research around the Cavafian oeuvre. In this direction, it is worth mentioning the latest publications by members of the Committee in 2024, such as Cavafy’s Hellenistic Antiquities: History, Archaeology, Empire by Takis Kayalis (Palgrave Macmillan Publications) and Reframing Decadence: C. P. Cavafy’s Imaginary Portraits by Peter Jeffreys (Crete University Press), while several others are to be published within the same year.

ACADEMIC ADVISORS FOR THE CAVAFY HOUSE EXHIBITION

Hala Halim, Associate Professor in the Departments of Comparative Literature and Middle

Eastern Studies, New York University, USA

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

Louisa Karapidaki, Museologist, Hellenic Folklore Research

Center, Academy of Athens, Greece

Alexander Kazamias, Associate Professor in Politics,Faculty of Arts and Humanities,

Coventry University, UK

Gonda Van Steen, Koraes Chair of Modern Greekand Byzantine History, Language and Literature, King’s College London, UK

Mohamed Adel Dessouki, Urban History Advisor, University of Alexandria, Egypt

CAVAFY ARCHIVE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE

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 Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Amalia Pappa, Deputy Director General of the General State Archives, 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

CAVAFY HOUSE PROJECT CREDITS

Onassis Foundation

Anthony S. Papadimitriou, President of the Board

ONASSIS CULTURE

Αfroditi Panagiotakou, Director of Culture

Dimitris Theodoropoulos, Deputy Director of Culture

ONASSIS EDUCATION

Effie Tsiotsiou, Executive Director & Director of Education

Marianna Christofi, Project Development Manager

Angeliki Mousiou, Cavafy Archive Researcher

Eleanna Semitelou, Projects Coordinator

CAVAFY HOUSE EXHIBITION CREDITS

Design & Curation: Flux-office:Eva Manidaki & Thanassis Demiris

Collaborator: Eleni Arapostathi

Graphic Design: Katerina Vlahbey

English Translations & Editing: Karren Emmerich

Greek Translations & Editing: Vassilis Douvitsas

Arabic Translations: Khaled Raouf

Arabic Proofreading: Roni Bou Saba

Project Coordination: Effie Tsiotsiou, Marianna Christofi, Eleanna Semitelou

Building Restoration Contractor: Codep LTD Egypt

Reproduction of Archival Items: Babis Lengas

Hanging of Artworks: MOVEART

Bespoke constructions & display units’ production & installation supervision: Cluster

P. Cavafy

Constantine Cavafy was born in Alexandria, Egypt, on April 17, 1863. When the new calendar came into effect, the date changed to April 29, which coincides with the date of his death (April 29, 1933). The poet’s parents, Peter John Cavafy and Hariclia, had a total

of nine children, of whom Constantine was the last. Peter John and his brother George, who had settled in London, managed a flourishing trading company. The family’s prosperity was to be short-lived. Peter John’s premature death in 1870 forced Hariclia to seek support for herself and her children from her husband’s brother in England. The family resided first in Liverpool and then in London. In 1877, they returned to Alexandria.

1882 saw a nationalist uprising by the army in Egypt; following violent incidents in Alexandria, Britain bombarded the city, and foreign residents began to flee. This time, Hariclia hurried to her family home in Constantinople. In 1885, the family returned to Alexandria, and Constantine assumed various jobs. He obtained steady employment in 1892 when he was hired by the Third Circle of Irrigation, where he worked for the next 30 years. Having moved into what was then 10 Rue Lepsius, now 4 Rue Cavafy, with his brother Paul in 1907, he lived alone in this apartment from 1908 until the end of his life. 1901, he visited Athens for the first time, in the company of his brother Alexander. Cavafy went on to exchange letters with intellectual Grigorios Xenopoulos, who in 1903 wrote the first extensive piece about Cavafy’s work to be published in Athens.

Cavafy’s apartment would become his customary place for meeting with visitors coming from Greece and elsewhere, including Nikos Kazantzakis, Myrtiotissa, Kostas Ouranis, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and E. M. Forster. His unusual publication method, certain personal idiosyncrasies (as described by his associates), and his pointed references to literary figures led to the creation of an aura of legend around his person. 1886 saw Cavafy’s first publications: the prose piece “Coral from a Mythological Perspective” in the newspaper Konstantinoupolis and the poem “Bacchic” in the journal Esperos in Leipzig.

The first appearance of Cavafy’s idiosyncratic editorial method can be dated to 1892, when he printed a broadside containing the poem “Builders.” In subsequent years, he collected offprints of poems that had appeared in various journals―or had individual poems printed―and used them to form handmade packets, which scholars retrospectively described as two “volumes” (1904 and 1910) and ten “collections,” containing poems from the years 1910–1932. These quasi-books never circulated commercially; rather, the poet himself sent or gave them to friends and admirers of his work. G. P. Savvidis later grouped his entire poetic production into four categories: the 154 poems of the “canon,” comprising the poems Cavafy himself put into circulation; the “repudiated” poems of his early period; the “hidden” poems, which were not published during Cavafy’s lifetime; and the “unfinished,” drafts of poems which he never completed.

By the 1920s, many young readers in Athens had turned their attention to Cavafy’s poetry; some wrote to ask for collections or composed commentaries on his work. In 1926, the Greek government awarded him the Order of the Phoenix, the only distinction he received during his lifetime. The same year, a new artistic and literary journal, Alexandrini Techni, appeared in Alexandria, which Cavafy not only directed from behind the scenes but supported financially.

In 1932, he was diagnosed with throat cancer and was encouraged by his doctors to travel to Athens for further treatment. He was accompanied on the journey by his heirs, Alekos and Rika Singopoulo. His presence in the Greek capital met with great publicity in the Athenian press. He was treated at the Hellenic Red Cross Hospital and underwent a tracheotomy, which caused him a permanent loss of his ability to speak. In April 1933, he was admitted to the Greek Hospital of Alexandria, where he breathed his last on April 29

Cavafy Archive

Timelessly contemporary, political, sensual, and profound, but always relevant, the internationally acclaimed poet C. P. Cavafy compiled and archived his work on a systematic basis, hence creating a unique literary and personal archive. The Cavafy archive consists of more than 2,000 items, including manuscripts of poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary works, articles, studies, and notes by the poet, along with his personal archive rich in correspondence, texts, and photographs. The Onassis Foundation acquired the Cavafy archive at the end of 2012. This acquisition safeguarded its preservation in Greece and prevented its potential fragmentation. The aim of the Onassis Foundation is to ensure openness and free access to the archive by the public and researchers, as well as to disseminate the universal nature of Cavafy’s poetry. The Onassis Foundation proceeded with digitizing, classifying, and fully documenting the entity of the Cavafy archive contents in Greek and English, and in May 2019, the digital collection of the archive was published at cavafy.onassis.org, rendering it accessible to all. Responding once again to the need for openness, accessibility, and dissemination of the poet’s work, the Onassis Foundation invested in the creation of the Cavafy Archive, a tailor-made space in Athens dedicated to the poet’s archive, which was inaugurated in November 2023. Yet another international cultural heritage attraction opened for all residents, researchers, and visitors under the architectural design of Flux-office by Eva Manidaki and Thanassis Demiris. The Cavafy Archive in the historical center of Athens hosts the poet’s literary and personal archive, 966 books from his library, and a collection of documents and works of art with references to Cavafy. The aim was to create a space for the poet’s writings and books, his personal items and furniture, surrounded by artworks that enable us to gain an in-depth understanding of his growing impact on world literature and art from his era until today―a space open to researchers and the public, open to all.

Onassis Foundation

The mission of the Onassis Foundation, founded by Aristotle Onassis in 1975, will always be human-centric: to create the conditions, explore the ideas, and spark the discussions that lead to a better society.

The Foundation actively promotes the rich contributions of contemporary Greek culture throughout the world. Although based in Athens, its work spans the globe, focusing on culture, healthcare, and education.

It has awarded more than 7,600 scholarships to young people worldwide since the late 1970s and presents countless cultural events each year. By building the Onassis National Transplant Center until 2024, following the Onassis Cardiac Center in Athens, it creates the conditions to provide health to all, offering the Greek society a hospital for the transplant of solid organs, as well as a center for research and innovation in the field of organ transplantation.

In the US, the Onassis Foundation offers generous support for and curation of cultural programming across various art forms and creative endeavors. Onassis USA, based in New York, includes Onassis ONX (ONassis eXtended realities), a global Onassis Culture platform dedicated to new media art and digital culture. The program provides holistic support from the spark of an idea to meticulous development, polished production, and impactful distribution and communication. Onassis ONX collaborates with organizations such as NEW INC, Rhizome, Pioneer Works, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and Games 4 Change in New York and with IDFA, CPH:DOX, DiMoDA, and PHI Centre globally.

Through Onassis AiR, a program built on the continuous support of artistic research and practice, aiming to foster a space where the artists set the conditions themselves for the development of their work, the Onassis Foundation supports the members of its broader ecosystem and its existing partnerships with the local and international artistic community.

And when it comes to culture, itʼs not just art; it’s a way of living. At Onassis Culture, with the Onassis Stegi as its hub, the Foundation encourages the talent and energy of local and international artists to thrive and starts conversations that aim to shake and shape society. Onassis Stegi is a center of global contemporary culture that, through a series of initiatives and works, promotes dialogue about democracy, social and environmental justice, racial and gender equality, and LGBTQIA+ rights.

STEGI.RADIO is Onassis Stegiʼs international web radio, thus a cultural platform that focuses on new music productions, speaks through sounds and ideas, tracks current political and critical thought, and crosses an imaginary archipelago to bolster dialogue that goes beyond borders and dates.

The Onassis YouTube Channel is constantly evolving and growing bigger by adding new productions, digital concerts, documentaries, online discussions, and unique content, bringing our common digital future into focus.