Look up and ahead for a tall beige building with a tower section, large blue-and-yellow Shacolas signs, and flags on top-it stands out above the old town’s rooftops.
Welcome to the towering Shacolas Tower! You can’t miss it-this giant of Nicosia has been raising eyebrows (and necks) since 1959. Locals once knew it as the Manglis Tower, named after the bold Costas Manglis who built it, hoping to scratch the sky long before it was trendy. Imagine the buzz when it opened-people from all over would come to marvel, craning their necks and maybe even feeling a bit dizzy from the height, since this was the tallest building in Cyprus for nearly twenty years! The first five floors are where today’s treasures live-H&M has moved in, but picture, decades ago, the offices of the General Engineering and the Hellenic Mining Company bustling with sharp-suited workers. If you feel hungry for a view, the sixth floor was once a lively cafeteria with a panoramic sweep of the city, a place where romances began and secrets were whispered over coffee. But the real surprise is the 11th floor-an observatory and museum, with telescopes and binoculars ready to let you gaze out across the entire capital. There, the past hugs the present: listen to the city’s story in many languages, gaze at old photographs, and spot the places you've just explored. It’s like history with altitude-don’t look down if you’re scared of heights!
