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The Monastery of St. Barnabas is at the opposite side of the Salamis-Famagusta road, by the Royal Tombs. You can easily tell it by its two fairly large domes. It was built to commemorate the foremost saint of Cyprus, whose life was so intertwined with the spread of the Christian message in the years immediately following the death of Christ.

The cloister of the monastery has recently been restored and at present serves as the archaeological museum. This section houses an exquisite collection of ancient pottery displayed chronologically, representing the changes in morphology and decoration of pottery in Cyprus from the Neolithic to the Roman times. The rest of the collection covers bronze and marble art objects.

Barnabas was born in Salamis, and joined the apostle Paul to spread the Gospel through Cyprus and Asia Minor. However, the two men split up over the objection to Barnabas's cousin Mark coming along too. In AD 75, the Jewish community in Salamis objected to his missionary work, and had Barnabas stoned to death. Mark rescued his cousin's body and buried it at a secret location.

In the fifth century, the Church of Antioch tried to rule it over the church already established on Cyprus. The Cyprus church defended itself by claiming that since it was founded by a saint, it was equal in rank to the Church of Antioch, founded by Saint Paul. Problem was, there was no proof of this, until St Barnabas appeared in a vision to the Archbishop in AD477 and directed him to Barnabas' tomb.

The Archbishop found the tomb exactly where the vision had indicated, complete with a skeleton clutching a copy of the Gospel of St Matthew, and so the Cyprus church was awarded special privileges. The monastery was established on the site of the saints’ tomb in the fifth century, with funds provided by the Byzantine emperor. However, the church was destroyed by Arab raiders in the seventh century, but it was rebuilt. The present church and cloisters at the monastery of St Barnabas, North Cyprus date from 1756, and parts of the building reuse columns from the ancient site at Salamis.

The tomb of St Barnabas discovered by the Archbishop is still on site, a catacomb cut down into the rock consisting of two chambers. Walk into the modern mausoleum built over the top, and down the steps into the two small chambers, originally designed to hold six dead bodies apiece.

Besides its beautiful traditional architecture, the St Barnabas Icon and Archeological Museum houses a rich collection of painted and gilt icons mostly dating from the 18th century and archaeological antiques from the Neolithic to the Roman times, that were excavated from Salamis, Engomi and other ancient settlements. And if you are interested, it would be worthwhile to visit.