The building of the police station in Larnaca is a rare case of his large-scale projects on the island.

A connoisseur artist, he designed a building out of traditions of various times. The lovingly drawn and stacked stone lancet arches recall Ottoman architecture, which Macartney knew and felt well, as he had traveled in Turkey and Syria.

At the base of the arch’s vault, however, he placed simplified square capitals, which are characteristic of Byzantine architecture. Instead of rich carvings, they are decorated with geometric elements, like cuneiform writing.

In the calm layout of the volumes and the absence of superfluous components, architecture lovers can feel the influence of Charles Holden, an outstanding English architect. Let’s bring up his British Hospital adorning the Istanbul skyline and the King Edward VII Sanatorium in Midhurst, both built in the early 1900s.

At the same time, the police station retraces Macartney’s very first job, the temporary residence of the archaeological expedition in Tel Brak, Syria (1936), a photograph of which Agatha Christie chose for her autobiography Come, Tell Me How You Live. After Cyprus, Macartney worked in African colonies. In particular, in Freetown he built the Government House in Art Deco style, which now houses the official residence of the President of Sierra Leone.

We should add that Odysseas Tsangarides (1904–1974) worked at the same time, and we read the same influences of Holden and the search for artistic synthesis of architectural elements from different countries and times.

And now we go to Marina to see a hidden masterpiece.