On the 160th anniversary of his birth, the archive of one of the most important figures in Greek and Western poetry will now be permanently housed in Greece.
Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, or Constantine P Cavafy, as he is known in English, is widely considered the most distinguished Greek poet of the 20th century.
His archive of over 2000 artefacts will now be located in a refurbished 1910 house in the Plaka district of Athens, with free entrance.
CP Cavafy himself collected and archived his work on a systematic basis.
These artefacts include manuscripts of poems, hand-compiled printed editions, prose literary works, articles, studies and notes by the poet. Also found in the are his personal correspondence, documents, photographs, 966 books from his library, personal objects, as well as paintings referring to him.
The exhibition is split into three different rooms, one containing his personal items, one devoted to Cavafy’s relationship with Athens and another serves as a reading room.
Onassis Foundation president Antonis S Papadimitriou said that the archive had been gathered by Hellenic studies professor George P Savvidis, and purchased from Manolis Savvidis.
“The Cavafy Archive is constantly enriched with new acquisitions,” Papadimitriou told AMNA.
“We 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.”
He said the purpose of it is not to create a lifeless museum, but a sense of the poet’s life.
Their 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.
A digital version was completed in 2019 in both Greek ad English, and can be accessed via cavafy.onassis.org
