Nicosia’s old tailor shops to share their stories at heritage event

Nicosia, Cyprus. Every Stitch, a Memory will open traditional tailor workshops in Nicosia’s walled city to visitors on Saturday, October 3, as part of European Heritage Days 2026. Facilitated by the Cyprus Oral History Association, the event will feature researchers interviewing and recording tailors’ stories in Greek to help safeguard their history.

Stories from the workshops

The public is invited to observe the interviews, explore the workshops and listen to conversations with craftspeople who have spent much of their lives behind sewing machines.

The event is not an organised tour. Visitors can walk through the old city at their own pace, hear stories from a different era of Nicosia and see tailoring tools and techniques up close.

Participating workshops are on Aischylou Street and surrounding streets. Organisers invite visitors to sit alongside the tailors, listen to their memories and see old sewing machines, scissors, measuring tapes and patterns in shops that continue to operate behind the windows of old Nicosia.

Route and access

Researchers will conduct interviews inside the workshops from 10am to noon, with the spaces open to the public. Visitors can collect a free printed route map from 7 Kleidia at 9.45am and follow it independently, stopping to observe interviews.

Participation is free and open to all, but the number of visitors allowed inside each workshop will be limited because of the shops’ small size.

Clothing repair and reuse

The event will also encourage discussion about repairing, reusing and caring for clothes, practices described as gaining renewed value today.

Online registration is available at https://forms.gle/Kp1dCD4JSVuSs7eV9. The listed email contact is [email protected].