Downtown DistrictAlexandria Governorate
العربية
MuseumsCavafy Museum

MuseumsThe cosmopolitan city

Cavafy Museum

Near Fouad Street, Cavafy’s apartment offers a glimpse of the poet’s life and Alexandrian world, through the rooms he lived in and faithful copies of his papers.

The cosmopolitan city
Cavafy’s home from 1907 to 1933
Opening hours
Tue–Sun 10:00–17:00 (closed Monday)
Tickets
Nominal entry fee
Administrative section
El Attarin
Open in maps(External link)Watch the filmIts place in time

Image credits

What sets it apart

A second-floor flat in an early-20th-century building: a recreated salon, faithful copies of the poet’s documents, and his restored balcony.

7 documented memories

The documentary

The Cavafy House — The poet’s home from 1907 to 1933

Picture and music credits

Picture and music credits

Chapters

  1. 0:44A merchant’s son
  2. 1:25The flat on Rue Lepsius
  3. 2:49Silence
  4. 3:38The house returns

Narrated by a synthetic voice (Google Gemini) reading a script written from documented sources. Arabic and English subtitles are in the player’s captions menu.

Its place in time

The cosmopolitan city · 1860 – 1950

The district at the height of its plurality: Greek, Italian, French, Levantine, Jewish and Armenian communities; the tram, theatres, hotels and cafés; classical, Art Nouveau and Art Deco buildings.

  1. Fouad Street — the Canopic Way331 BC — the Canopic Way
  2. Roman Theatre at Kom El DikkaRoman era, most likely 4th century — uncovered in 1964
  3. Shallalat GardensOn the line of the 9th-century wall, under Ibn Tulun
  4. Remains of the Alexandria City Wall9th century — under Ibn Tulun
  5. Misr Railway StationThe railway from the 1850s — present building 1927
  6. Mahatet El Raml & Saad Zaghloul SquareFrom 1863 — the Ramleh line’s terminus
  7. The Alexandria Tram1863
  8. Eliyahu Hanavi SynagogueRebuilt in the 19th century — foundation plaque dated 1881
  9. Graeco-Roman Museum1892
  10. The Statue of Nubar PashaUnveiled in 1904, according to a museum record
  11. The Windsor Palace Hotel1906, by the hotel’s own account
  12. Cavafy MuseumCavafy’s home from 1907 to 1933
  13. The Lycée Al-Horreya1909–1910 — the Shatby building from 1913
  14. Sayed Darwish Theatre — Alexandria Opera House1921 — the Mohamed Ali Theatre
  15. Alexandria National MuseumLate-1920s palace — museum since 2003
  16. The Cecil Hotel1929
  17. Museum of Fine Arts1954
  18. Bibliotheca Alexandrina2002
  • Ancient Alexandria331 BC – 7th century AD
  • The Islamic centuries7th century – 1805
  • The Mohamed Ali revival1805 – 1860
  • The cosmopolitan city1860 – 1950
  • Contemporary Alexandria1950 – today
The Windsor Palace Hotel front and its iron balconies on the corniche
Before it in timeThe Windsor Palace Hotel1906, by the hotel’s own account
The Lycée Al-Horreya building and its long front on Tariq El Horreya
After it in timeThe Lycée Al-Horreya1909–1910 — the Shatby building from 1913

Highlights

  • 1The recreated salon
  • 2A copy of the first collected edition of his poems (1935)
  • 3Faithful copies of his documents
  • 4The surrounding quarter

The story

  1. Constantine Cavafy (1863–1933) lived in this apartment from 1907 until his death. Here he wrote many of his poems, in a city that remained central to his poetic world.

  2. The museum is small and intimate. After his death the building served, among other uses, as a boarding house. When the Cavafy Museum opened in the flat in 1992, old photographs helped to reconstruct its furniture. After a restoration by the Onassis Foundation, it reopened in May 2024 as the Cavafy House. The house does not try to be an exact replica of his flat: its rooms hold heirlooms, faithful copies of his documents, contemporary art and a copy of the first collected edition of his poems, published in 1935.

  3. The surrounding streets near Fouad and Nabi Daniel give the house a wider setting, connecting a visit with the city that appears in Cavafy’s poetry.

Memories of the place

Every memory is taken from a published, documented source.

  1. 1905–1907Sources differ on this date

    The building that houses the apartment was probably put up between 1905 and 1907, in the eclectic style that prevailed in Alexandria.

  2. 1907

    Cavafy moved into this apartment at 10 Rue Lepsius with his elder brother Paul.

  3. 1908

    Paul retired to Hyères in France, and the poet lived on in the apartment alone.

  4. 29 April 1933

    Cavafy died in the Greek Hospital of Alexandria on 29 April, the date usually given as his birthday. After his death the building served, among other uses, as a boarding house named Amir.

  5. Before 1992

    A first “museum of sorts” for Cavafy was set up on the upper floor of the Greek Consulate General, in the Greek quarter of Chatby.

  6. 16 November 1992

    The Cavafy Museum opened in the flat on the initiative of the historian and writer Kostis Moskoff, Greek cultural attaché in Cairo, and of Stratis Stratigakis, who also provided the funding.

  7. 2022 – 11 May 2024

    The Onassis Foundation, in partnership with the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, restored the Cavafy House from early 2022; Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou inaugurated it on 11 May 2024.

Around it

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