Near East Investments is building an unwavering bridge between past and the future with Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts, Walled City Museum, Cyprus Car Museum, Herbarium and Natural History Museum, Günsel Art Museum, Günsel Office Museum, Cyprus Art Museum, Cyprus Turkish National History Museum, Maritime History Museum, Knife and Sword Museum.
Near East Investments museums continue to enrich their collections although they keep away from the visitors due to the pandemic during the International Museum Week which is celebrated between May 18-24 every year.
Near East University, which initiated a great momentum in the culture and art lif of the TRNC with the establishment of Cyprus Modern Arts Museum in 2018, aims to make history, art, technology, science and culture an indispensable part of social life with Cyprus Car Museum, Günsel Office Museum, Walled City Museum, Günsel Art Museum, Herbarium and Natural History Museum, Maritime History Museum, Knife and Sword Museum and Cyprus Turkish National History Museum. Near East Enterprises museums is forming an important cultural accumulation that will shape the future with their works from all areas of contemporary art. On the other hand, classic cars, historical artifacts that reflect the national culture of the TRNC, thousands of species of plants and living things, fossils and remains that shed light on the geology of Cyprus, bring the history of Cyprus and the world to this day and strengthen the ties of society with the past.
Near East University Campus resembles open-air museum
The Near East University campus continues to integrate with art with the newly opened sculptures. Following the recently opened Liberty Monument, Heralds Monument and Technology Hunter Monument, 30 bronze statues symbolizing 14 Turkic republics and their communities were placed in a special area. Thus, the number of monumental sculptures, which were completed at the Near East University Sculpture Workshop and exhibited on the campus, approached 200.
When the sculptures adorning the streets of TRNC outside the campus and the monumental sculptures exhibited in museums are added to this number, the number of sculptures completed by the Near East University Sculpture Workshop exceeds 500. Sculptures that appear in different fields make art a part of daily life in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Heart of Contemporary Art
The Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts is the largest contemporary art museum not only in Cyprus, but also in the region, with over 30 thousand artworks reached today. The Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts has a rich collection of paintings and sculptures consisting of the works of artists from 14 Turkic republics and their communities. In this respect, the Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts is a center where the Turkish culture meets the world.
The Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts is currently serving in its building located opposite the Cyprus Car Museum. The new museum building, built with an original and modern architecture and rising like a work of art, reflects the founding philosophy of the Cyprus Museum of Modern Arts. The new building of the museum is being built in the form of a hand surrounding the historical Rectorate building of Near East University. While the building itself symbolizes the present and the future, the rectorate building in its center symbolizes respect for the past.
Past and present of the automobile
The Cyprus Car Museum, the only classic automobile museum in the country, is one of the most interesting museums on the Near East University Campus. With its rich collection, it reveals the development and history of the modern world through the transformation of automobiles. The oldest vehicle of the museum, where over 100 cars are exhibited, is the 1899 model Crest Mobile. In addition to this vehicle, which is the only one in the world, automobiles from every period of 100 years of history from the early 1900s to the 2000s take the visitors into a time tunnel.
The natural history of the island with more than 20 thousand plant and living specimens
The Herbarium and Natural History Museum, which are open to visitors on the Near East University Campus, embody the natural history of Cyprus and make it visible to everyone. In the museum, which is also a reflection of the 42 years of scientific experience of Near East University, 11 thousand different kinds of plant specimens from nearly 600 plant species available in Cyprus, fungi, insect species, various reptile species, marine creatures and Cyprus geology, fossils and rocks are exhibited. In the Herbarium and Natural History Museum located in the Faculty of Pharmacy building of Near East University, there are 140 species of plants unique to Cyprus and 19 species of plants that grow in the Beşparmak Mountains specific to Northern Cyprus. There are 106 types of mushrooms belonging to three different groups, 250 algae, 23 reptile species, insect collections belonging to different taxonomic orders, and examples of 250 million-year-old limestones and 220 million fossilized trees of the Beşparmak mountain range. The museum also provides new opportunities and perspectives for scientific studies in the fields of biology, pharmacy, medicine, pharmacology, forestry, and nutritional engineering.
Herbarium and Natural History Museum researchers are also studying hard to include the species unique to Cyprus in the world literature. In October 2020, a new spider species was discovered in the Beşparmak Mountains and named "Lachesanabayramgocmeni". A spider unique to Cyprus was previously discovered in 2018, and named "Gunselorum" in dedication to the founding Rector of Near East University, Dr. Suat Günsel and his family.
Art is in the city!
The Walled City Museum has brought art to the center of Nicosia. The "Walled City Museum", which serves in the old building of Ziraat Bank at the Kyrenia Gate, which was restored with the initiative of Günsel Family, was opened to visitors on the week of 15 November Republic Day.
The Walled City Museum is the second museum opened in the center of Nicosia, after the Near East University's "Gunsel Art Museum" on Dereboyu Street, which opened its doors in February 2020. The art and cultural environment created by the Walled City Museum in the capital will help the cultural identity of Cyprus meet with the national and international art environment. The artworks to be exhibited in the Walled City Museum offer a wide range that covers all branches of visual arts. In addition, many materials belonging to the social, cultural and political past of Nicosia are also exhibited in the museum.
