Nea Paphos. Fondation et développement urbanistique d’une ville chypriote de l’antiquité à nos jours. Études archéologiques, his

The modern town of Paphos is going to be European Capital of Culture in 2017 but the kingdom of Paphos, on the south-western shore of Cyprus, is famous for its sanctuary of the Great Goddess of Cyprus and being the birth place of Aphrodite, according to Homer. At the end of the 4th c. BC, a new harbour is established 15 km to the South-West of the old Paphos, where the new Paphos is built. Whatever it has been founded by Nikoklès, the last Cypriot king of the kingdom or by Ptolemy, the new city flourished under the Ptolemies who established there the seat of their governor and of their fleet in the 2nd c. BC. After a terrible earthquake in 15 a.C., the city is rebuilt thank to Augustus and Nea Paphos is then called Sébastè. It remained the capital of the island until the emperor Constantin who preferred Salamis. In May 1192, Guy of Lusignan bought the island to Richard the Lionheart who had conquered it on the Byzantines the previous year. The island became a Latin State and the Latin Church was introduced. Paphos or Baffa is a prosperous harbor again, important halt before the Holy Land for the Franks as well as for the Italians as a trading post. 

This volume gathers 32 contributions of the participants to the international colloquium on Nea Paphos held in Avignon in 2012.