Cyprus Today April -June 2005.pdf

Editorial
Luckily the blood does not get orders from the brain,
Luckily it has to deal only with the heart,
It is the heart that drives it,
because who knows how stingy it would be
what calculations at the crucial moment
when we should in any case have dyed the asphalt red,
when we should in any case have spattered the walls red.
Cyprus Revolt
From the volume "Moments" by Costas Montis
In April 1955 the Greek Cypriot community rose up against British colonial rule,
their souls galvanized by the flame of freedom. They were aware that life was dear
and calm was sweet but these couldn’t be purchased at the price of colonial slavery.
Armed with the holy cause of liberty, they chose to go down fighting a formidable
adversary against overwhelming odds.
The liberation struggle, led by the EOKA organization, rocked the island for over
four years. The 1955-1959 period is replete with great moments of heroism not
only of individual freedom fighters but of the people as a whole: the old, the
young, the strong, the weak and the active were all involved in some way.
Costas Montis, the leading Cypriot poet, lived through this turbulent period of
the revolt. In his book Closed Doors, which was first published in Greek in 1964
by the National Committee of Youth of Cyprus, Montis unfolds his narrative of
the struggle that led to the independence of Cyprus, with masterly artistry, introducing
the reader into the atmosphere, the spirit and emotions of those days.
Paying homage to the 50th anniversary of the liberation struggle, we present some
excerpts from Closed Doors, the first English translation of Montis’ work, published
by NOSTOS BOOKS of Minneapolis in the USA in 2004. We also reproduce
part of the introduction by David Roessel, one of the translators, which sheds
some light on the period and elucidates the way in which Closed Doors was intended
as some kind of an answer to Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell, who was a
British colonial official in Cyprus in the 1950s. We would like to thank NOSTOS
publishers for their kind permission to reprint the excerpts here.
Among the other topics covered by the review, special attention is given to the use
of ornamental elements in traditional architecture. In the article "Carved Wood,
Carved Stone and Painted Decoration in Traditional Architecture", Euphrosyne
Egoumenidou from the University of Cyprus analyses the art of stone and wood carving
and other architectural features used to embellish traditional houses. The inner
desire of the owners to adorn the place they lived in reveals a spiritual wealth in combining
the practical with beauty, life with art.
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EOKA ANNIVERSARY
A masterly translation of Costas Montis’
book Closed Doors, a story about the
Cypriot struggle for liberation against
British colonial rule, (1955-1959),
coincides with the 50 years anniversary
of the event.
The book is the 23rd volume in a series
of publications dealing with modern Greek
history and culture under the auspices of
Nostos, the Society for the Study of Greek
Life and Thought, Minneapolis, Minnesota,
U.S.A.
Theofanis G. Stavrou of the University
of Minnesota, known for his commitment
to the promotion of modern Cypriot
writers, is the general editor of Nostos
Press. The excellent translation, a collaboration
between David Roessel and
Soterios G. Stavrou, finally allows
Montis’ voice to be heard by English
readers.
This intriguing book, intended by the
author to be an answer to Bitter Lemons
by Lawrence Durrell, is an attempt to
depict the struggle for freedom through
the eyes of a Cypriot whose life was intricately
entangled with the dramatic events
of that period.

A DIALOGUE
BETWEEN
TWO BOOKS
from the introduction to Costas Montis’ s Closed Doors by David Roessel
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"AN ANSWER to Bitter Lemons of Lawrence
Durrell." These words on the title page of
Costas Montis’s Closed Doors provide the inspiration
and the context for the novel. For, while
the book can certainly be read on a number
of different levels, it is fundamentally a dialogue
in which the other side has already spoken.
And an answer, even such an indirect
answer as this, does not claim to be neutral or
unbiased. American readers will find in Closed
Doors a relentless, sometimes strident, Cypriot
point of view.
This is a clear case of the "empire writing back",
a colonised native answering a former servant
in the colonial government. In fact, the two
books share a geography of adjoining offices.
Lawrence Durrell began Bitter Lemons near
the end of his stint from 1954 to 1956 as
the director of the Public Information
Office (PIO) for the British colonial Government
of Cyprus; Costas Montis wrote
Loukia Nicolaidou, Enosis - A Dream for Cyprus,
oil, 1950. State Collection of Contemporary Art
Closed Doors while the director of tourism for
the Republic of Cyprus, a bureau which was
formerly under Durrell’ s control. Yet, while
Bitter Lemons (1957) has sold over two million
copies, Closed Doors has never appeared
in English translation and readers of Durrell
are unaware of its existence. This translation
finally allows Montis’s voice to be heard by
those who cannot read Greek.
The dialogue between Bitter Lemons and Closed
Doors has interest beyond scholars involved
in Durrell research or postcolonial studies, for
it is also a debate between two powerful artists
who produced political books to influence the
depiction of the narrative of the struggle for
Cypriot independence. For Montis, Closed
Doors was an attempt to reappropriate that
narrative from Durrell, to present a picture of
the struggle for freedom by a Cypriot who, as
he says in his brief explanation, had lived
through the entire four years of the revolt.
In a discussion of Bitter Lemons in a suppressed
section of his novel The Age of Bronze (1960),
the Greek author Rodis Roufos wrote that
"(a)nother book was needed to fill in the gaps,
to give the Greek view", because Durrell
"observes a prudish silence over some
aspects of the repression" (this section was
published for the first time as "Sour Grapes",
in Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal,
no. 3 [1994]: 134-38). Durrell may seem
enjoyable and plausible to American readers
because, as part of the English-speaking community,
he knows how to frame the story to
impress and influence them. Montis, writing
in Greek for a Cypriot audience, employs
a different style and strategy. Where Durrell
wants ambiguity, Montis appears polemical –
his self-perceived function is to stress the
torture chambers, curfews, communal fines,
and black-hooded informers that were part of
daily Cypriot life during the struggle. While

Takis Frangoudis, Student demonstration during the Liberation Struggle 55-59, oil. Limassol Municipal
Gallery
Closed Doors is a novel, it has more similarities
to Zola’s J’ accuse than to the usual qualities
of fiction. Further, it is important to keep
in mind that Montis, like Rodis Roufos,
perceived a deviousness in Durrell’ s supposed
ambiguity. It was, in their eyes, the cloak that
the colonial spin doctor used to mislead his
readers. In fact, both Montis and Roufos chose
to write their responses to Bitter Lemons in the
form of fiction in part to indicate that Bitter
Lemons was itself highly fictional.
What was at stake for Montis, as I mentioned
earlier, was the narrative of the struggle for
Cypriot freedom. Cyprus, which came under
British control in 1878, acquired the status of
a crown colony in 1926. The overwhelming
desire of the Greek Cypriots, over 80 per-
cent of the population, was Enosis (union)
with Greece. But a new conception of the
empire had emerged after World War II,
one in which British influence and control
were ensured by a skeleton of strong points
such as Gibraltar, Malta, Singapore, and Hong
Kong. Cyprus was to be the British base in
the eastern Mediterranean, and in Parliament
the foreign minister informed the members
that Cyprus would "never" be let go. In addition,
the Turkish Cypriots, about a fifth of the
population, strenuously opposed union
with Greece, as did Turkey itself. The Turks
held that if the British were to leave Cyprus,
the island should revert back to Turkey,
from whom the British had taken it. Whether
or not some solution to the ethnic disagreement
could be found, it became the policy of
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Britain to inflame Turkish feeling in order to
counter the claims of the Greek Cypriots for
enosis.
After the failure of nonviolent attempts to gain
self-determination, the Cypriots began an
armed rebellion on 1 April 1955 similar in
kind to that which had proved effective in
Palestine in 1948. It lasted, with several breaks
and ceasefires, until 1959. British officials bear
some responsibility for this development as
they thoughtlessly offered the opinion that "if
the Cypriot people want Enosis, they would
fight for it" (Charles Foley, Island in Revolt
[1962], 27). The aim of the armed struggle
was not to push the British off the island by
force, but rather to make it too difficult and
dangerous for them to stay. In the end, the
strategy worked. The British offered the island
independence rather than Enosis in 1959, and
Archbishop Makarios, the leader of the Greek
Cypriots, accepted. For all Durrell’ s lamentation
about the "terrorists" of EOKA, the
National Organization of Cypriot Fighters,
the truth remains that only the armed struggle
forced the British to grant the Cypriots
some measure of self-determination.
In Bitter Lemons, the armed rebellion is presented
in consistently negative terms, as the
work of "terrorists" who compel the populace,
generally pro-British, to assist the
revolt through threats of assassination. For
example, Durrell said that "to the nauseating
foulness of the street murder of soldiers
and policemen was added the disgusting, typically
Balkan, murder of civilians suspected of
being traitors. Apart from this of course there
was many an old score to settle in the name
of Enosis. The black mask was protection
A comic aspect of the rebellion: "My Marshal, I surrender". The little donkey bearing the sign with the response to
the ludicrous proposal of the governor that all "terrorists" should turn themselves in.
Arrest and concentration of Greek Cypriots in fenced-off areas – a daily phenomenon. (Photo: George Vatyliotis)

enough" (217). Durrell concedes that the
announcement that Cyprus would never be
permitted self-determination was a mistake,
and that the British made other errors of policy,
but contends that they were generally
humane.
The truth was that the majority of Greek
Cypriots did solidly support the armed struggle
– if not, why were the British so quick to
impose communal penalties such as curfews
and fines? And civilians had just as much to
fear from the hooded informers working for
the British, local "supergrasses" who could
consign someone to prison and torture by
simply pointing at them, as from the masked
gunmen of EOKA. Both sides engaged in terror
on Cyprus. Some British writers, such as
Durrell’ s contemporary Charles Foley (in
Island in Revolt), acknowledged this fact.
Despite Durrell’ s position as the chief "spin
doctor" for the British on Cyprus and the
publication of Bitter Lemons in the midst of
the Cypriot struggle for independence, his
book has a reputation for fairness and impartiality
among English-speaking readers. Critics
have been willing to believe that Durrell,
despite his work in the PIO, was quite capable
of writing a book, without bias. For decades,
amazingly, they have taken the first sentence
of Bitter Lemons at face value: "This is not
a political book, but simply a somewhat
impressionistic study of the moods and atmospheres
of Cyprus during the troubled years
1953-1956". We quickly discover in Bitter
Lemons that what made the years 1953 to
1956 troubled was the political situation.
Durrell’ s book remains the most widely
known volume in English about Cyprus and,
in the eyes of many Cypriots, has given readers
a slanted view of the island’s struggle to
free itself from British rule.
A number of Cypriots responded in reviews
Fellow fighters of Grigoris Afxentiou leaving the
Makhairas hide out after being arrested by the
British. (Photo: Felix Yiaxis)
George Pol. Georghiou, Harding’s Nightmare, oil on
wood, 1957
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British policemen searching a priest for the discovery
of weapons. (Photo: Andreas Nicolaides)
Adamantios Diamantis, Agony III , Kypros and Eleni Chrysostomides collection
to Durrell’ s depiction of Cyprus, but
almost everyone with any knowledge of Cypriot
literature would agree that Costas Montis
is the writer whom Cyprus would want as their
voice in that dialogue. He is widely recognized
as Cyprus’s greatest poet and has been called
the "voice of the island". It struck me as rather
shameful that, given the status of Montis,
Closed Doors had not appeared in English
earlier.
Costas Montis was a leading member in what
might be called "the Cypriot Renaissance" the
generation which matured in the forties and
fifties and laid the firm foundation for modern
Cypriot literature. Montis was born in
Famagusta in 1914 and died in Nicosia in
2004. He studied law at the University of
Athens, but upon his return to Cyprus he never
practiced as a lawyer. After a varied career

George Pol. Georghiou, Cypria Saga, oil on wood, 1956
as a school teacher, journalist, and editor, he
served as the director of tourism from 1960
until his retirement in 1976. He helped to
found the first professional theatre in Cyprus
in 1942 and wrote several works in the Cypriot
dialect, including a number of adaptations
of the plays of Aristophanes. Montis gained
renown as a poet with the appearance in 1958
Arrests of demonstrators by the security forces of the
British colonial regime. (Photo: Felix Yiaxis)
of Moments, which was followed in the next
decade by his masterpiece, the long poetic
sequence Letters to Mother. The poetry of Montis
resonates with the travails of his island,
from the struggle for union with Greece, the
acceptance of independence, the intercommunal
violence in the 1960s, the invasion
of the island by Turkey in 1974, and the subsequent
division of the small island into two
distinct units. Closed Doors is one of only two
novels by Montis and is not one of his bestknown
works. But for English and Americans
it has a special interest because of its relationship
to Lawrence Durrell.
Closed Doors is not, as Montis repeatedly stated,
a direct answer to Bitter Lemons. He simply
presents a version of the struggle by a Cypriot
who lived through it. Montis’ s choice of
a narrator may have been influenced by Durrell.
One of the interesting things about Bitter
Lemons is the way that Durrell attempts to
present himself as an innocent, even naïve narrator,
who is constantly surprised by events
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– even his own appointment as PIO director.
This is, in part, a strategy to make the reader
trust Durrell’ s narrative, although at times
it stretches credulity. For example, Durrell suggests
that it was only when he took the job
as PIO director that he realized the importance
that Turkey would have for the island’s
future. Surely that would have been apparent
to any intelligent adult with a background
in the foreign service? Why, we should wonder,
would the British want someone as PIO
director who could not see this? Against the
George Pol. Georghiou, The Imprisoned Graves,
oil on wood, 1958
innocent, childlike Durrell of Bitter Lemons,
Montis offers a child who is just a freshman
in high school at the start of his book. One of
the virtues of Closed Doors is how it can
present the unfolding movement though a set
of wide and impressionable eyes. And his choice
of narrator underscores one of his main themes,
how a generation of Cypriot youngsters lost
their childhood because the British saw Cyprus
as a strategic base. Durrell would like us to
think that he is a normal English civilian
put at risk by the terror of EOKA; Montis, on
the other hand, centers our attention on an
entire generation sacrificed for British policy.
Despite his announcement that his "was
not a political book", Durrell talks a great
deal about politics and policies. Montis, with
his young narrator, dispenses with high politics
and focuses on the impact of events on
everyday life.
In structure, Closed Doors is very much a poet’s
book, a series of vignettes that resemble prose
poems that center on one particular family
but range widely.
Closed Doors is also a careful record of Nicosia
during the emergency measures under the British
in the 1950s. In the Leventis Museum
in Nicosia, I saw a video called "School Memories",
which contained footage of students confronting
riot police in the city in the fifties. I
stood mesmerized, for it was as though I was
watching an adaptation of a section of
Closed Doors - that was how accurately Montis
has depicted the collision between students
and police. The scenes when the British closed
the walls of the old cities, the flying of kites
from rooftops during the long curfews, the
"language war" in which English signs were
painted over, all of these are accurate depictions
of what life had been like and bring nods
of agreement from older residents of the city.

Welcoming the return of Archbishop Makarios from exile in March, 1959. (Photo: Fanis Parpairis)
The metaphor of closed doors forms a crucial
part of the mental territory of Montis’ s universe,
and we can begin to see the key place
of the image in Montis’ s thought only after
reading this novel. And since the poet is a
spokesman for his society and for Cyprus, we
can understand how closed doors function as
a metaphor for the Cypriot experience. The
doors in the title refer on one level to the doors
of the prisons and camps which were opened
in 1959 – an incident captured in the monument
of liberty near the Famagusta Gate in
Nicosia – as well as the many sorts of doors
which were never opened upon independence.
It also refers to the lack of communication –
between Durrell’ s book and the Cypriots in
particular and between people more generally.
Montis returns to the image of closed
doors over and over again in his poetry.
We as readers must keep one essential fact in
mind. For Durrell, the lemons of Cyprus were
bitter for a few years; for Montis, some of
the doors closed by colonialism are still closed.
Durrell and the British could walk away from
the intractable problem that they helped to
create on Cyprus; in fact, Durrell never visited
the island again. For Montis, the bitter
lemons and closed doors remain part of daily
life on the divided island. If Montis’ s book
seems too angry and polemical, it is because
both he and his island are still living with
the legacy of the colonial government that
Durrell served. It may be that we in the
West will have to learn how to read "answers"
that re-appropriate a colonial narrative before
we can truly appreciate them. Closed Doors is,
and Montis admits, an annoying and frustrating
book, but it is also intriguing and eyeopening.
It deserves a place on the shelf.
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COSTAS MONTIS
Closed Doors
...FROM THAT NIGHT, we regularly heard
the bombs and dynamite. As soon as darkness
fell, the noise began. We all waited impatiently
to hear the explosions, and we grew anxious
if they were delayed. We children were not
simply nervous, we were in agony. A curious
kind of agony, even greater than when we were
quite small and would wait for the overdue
knock of our mother upon the door after
she had promised us that she would return
early and we were alone in the house as the
sun began to set. Occasionally the bombs were
so late we would no longer be able to fight off
the sweet insistence of sleep (as long as we
could resist, just another moment more), no
matter how hard we resisted. We nodded off
only to awaken in an instant at the sound of
the blasts, into that same half-sleeping state
we used to have in our early childhood on
Christmas Eve when we waited to hear the
bells ring, so that we could wake our mother
before she came for us. (No, we did not wake
our mother. Later she told us that many times
she had in fact woken before us, but pretended
to sleep to give us the joy of coming to her.
And when we did not appear, and it seemed
as if we would sleep through the bells, she tried
with noises, slight nudges, and a thousand
tricks to rouse us so that we, in turn, could
wake her up.)
When finally the long anticipated explosions
shook the air we would scream with relief
and jump up in our beds; it wasn’t a gentle
rousing, you can add to our relief that our
agony did not let us rest quietly. We held onto
it tightly so sleep could not take us; we held
on to it, unlike other anxieties that put their
grip on us. We held it as we used to grasp a
New Year’s toy in bed with us and if anyone
so much as touched it we awakened immediately.
(How did we manage to guard it so
vigilantly?)
"Mother! Father! Did you hear that?"
Of course they heard it.
"Yes." (A long drawn out "yes" like a trickle
of water on a field, whispered, without vowels,
after midnight, deep from within, a "yes"
that says everything, a "yes" that echoes like
the sudden opening of a tightly closed spigot.)
After the yes, a complete silence in the
house. Concentrated listening. The rooms
were tip-toeing.
"Another one!"
"Yes" (the same "yes").
I said the explosions shook the air, but it
was not exactly like that. It was something different.
You had the sense that these ephemeral
April nights, the satin sky, and the blossoming
almond trees; I don’t know how to say
it, but you had the sense that they opened up
their arms to the bombs to provide them a
place in which to hide, and then closed around
the explosions so that no harm might come
to Spring.
...MEANWHILE, we had our first casualty.
This first one, I admit, made us question
our commitment.
"The poor fellow. How did it happen?"
Despite our enthusiasm for the cause, we were
unprepared for casualties. Deaths are difficult
to accept when you have not had them for
centuries.
You stop suddenly to take another look, to

Costas Montis (1914 – 2004)
reassess the situation. Perhaps tomorrow it
might be your brother, or even you yourself?
Yes, perhaps. The war stories you had read
as a boy seized this moment to parade
before you; dismembered bodies with severed
legs, eyes glazed over, bullet holes in the
foreheads of handsome blonde youths.(Such
things as that here on the island? Yes, those
very things. What do you think of all this now?
The eyebrows of Kolokotronis darkened a bit,
the sword of Dhiakos and the Inn of Gravia
dimmed.)
Nevertheless we passed through that stage
quickly (surprisingly quickly). It had to happen
quickly, actually, for we had no time to
wait for the usual progression, the protracted
stages, the complicated process of normal
changes. Just put all that aside. Even the stories
and pictures of war no longer found fer-
tile ground in our minds, they managed to
disturb us just once or twice. We soon became
less queasy about spilled blood, that holy
fluid that matters when nothing else matters,
and controls (who knows for how long?) the
harsh fate of humans. Who knew how long
it would be before he might pay the ultimate
penalty at great moments, to close
with red finality the open questions, to cut
away the small pretexts? ("Very well, I’ll pay.")
I can’t say that such phrases as "the poor fellow"
or "how did it happen" vanished from
conversation, but they definitely took second
place. They remained inside of us; they
withdrew into a subconscious space, into
the region of our private logic and private
worlds (again to pierce the ceiling with the
wide-open eyes and to hear the kri-kri of the
cricket in the corner – that’s a completely
different matter), and they left the struggle
undisturbed.
...IN AUGUST, the English hanged three other
boys, and in September another three. Each
time, Nicosia was unable to sleep the night
before. The houses, walls, and people tossed
and turned with restlessness, the military vehicles
traversed the city (like ants released
from a box), a crowd knelt in the area outside
the prisons, and the voices from the cells sang
the Greek anthem. Then came the hopelessness,
the silence, finally broken by the cry
("Long Live Greece!").
(Iacovos did not sing the Greek Anthem on
the way to the gallows, but a religious hymn.
He had a calm, high, sweet voice, one of
the sweetest voices that had ever praised God).
Then came the retaliatory attacks by the
Organization, and the desperate attempts of
the English to benefit from the terror of
the gallows.
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It was after these hangings that the English
instituted punitive curfews. (I use the English
word because it is weighed down with such
pain, blood and hurt, that it’s not possible
to find an equivalent to the cursed thing in
Greek.) As soon as an "incident" occurred
(they always referred to them as "incidents"),
they imposed a curfew (I’m only speaking
about Nicosia of course). A daring
attack in Ledra Street in Nicosia – called "murder
mile" by the English – was an "incident",
an ambush in Royiatiko was an incident, as
was an unexpected skirmish where the gun
had been concealed under a rain coat, or a
bomb thrown through the door of a restaurant
or dropped from a roof onto a passing
jeep or truck. The curfew could last several
days and for poor families who had little in
their cupboards and no income except the daily
wages of a father or brother it was a real
hardship. When the curfews became regular
events, the English would let the women go
out for one or two hours to shop for food, but
there were often so few provisions in the stores
and so great a crowd of customers that some
people found nothing to buy. Those who had
no money had to run (if you could have
seen with what anxiety they ran) to beg a loan
from a relative or friend ("Just a few pounds
for the children’s sake") and then run again to
purchase whatever they could find before the
two hours was up.
After a while, shipments of food had to be
sent from all over the island. And it was not
only hunger that the lower classes had to endure,
but thirst as well. Many homes in Nicosia got
their water from public taps, and how could
they all manage to draw what they needed
in the space of two hours?
And the strain of the curfew did not end with
hunger and thirst. There was a nagging
nervousness that affected everyone equally. It
was a strain on the nerves similar at times to
a breakdown. What, people would ask themselves,
will I do if my child suddenly becomes
sick during a curfew and I can’t get a doctor
or medicine? What if my pregnant wife needs
attention? A thousand such cares ate at the
mind.
The strain was greatest in downtown Nicosia
inside the walled part of the city (look how
quickly it accumulates, see what happens when
it builds up). There the streets were narrow,
and the houses were glued to each other,
and neighbours made irritable by confinement
would needlessly argue. In suburbs
like ours, where the houses were set apart and
each had its own garden, the pressure was a
bit less. And the curfew in the suburbs was

Costas Montis, sketch by Telemachos Kanthos
also less severe because their size and expanse
made it difficult o patrol them as rigorously.
It was in the suburbs that the kites first appeared.
During the curfews, you could see hundreds
of kites in the air, flown not only by children
but also by grown men and women. I
don’t know how it started, or if there was a
reason behind it. Were they meant to be some
comic relief in a period of stress, or did they
have a deeper significance? Did a childish
prank first send them into the air (to confuse
us even more, and to make it impossible
to discover when childhood begins and
ends?), or some subconscious desire? (I don’t
know if there is not a common subconscious
for adults and children, if the subconscious
ages like a person – why should it? Why
couldn’t it age in reverse, and get younger as
the body gets older?) Were the kites, as some
foreign journalists suggested, a desperate attempt
to escape from the curfew, so desperate as to
be almost laughable? Or was it just playing?
You could see adults, even old women in black,
enjoying their kites dancing in the sky and
you feared that all of Nicosia had gone mad.
Whatever the cause, the kites from the suburbs
arrived over the houses within the walls
of Nicosia and brought support and encouragement.
The kites maintained contact between
people separated by the curfew (it seems a bit
romantic and at the same time contrived, no?).
Who knows for whom the old woman’s kite
was sent up? The kites were mostly blue and
white. They would make their daily walk over
the prison walls and offer greetings; they
carried our souls above the gallows. (No, now
that I think about it, it was surely not a childish
prank at all. I ought never to have suggested
such a thing.)
The kites of the English, for they joined in,
were simply child’s play. The English had to
participate, to join that sky filled with
Cypriot kites, when their children became
jealous, when their children cried and stamped
their feet. "Daddy, I want a kite, too." Was
this the reason that the English never dared
forbid the kites, they were afraid to face the
wrath of their own children? These brave servants
of the Queen were not only forced to
make kites for their children, but, many times,
were forced to fly them as well. ("Daddy, I
can’t. I can’t make it stay up.") Adding to the
ridiculousness, during the worst of the
emergency measures, they flew their children’s
kites while armed, a kite string in one hand
and a sten gun or pistol ready in the other!
(The kites of the English, I must tell you, were
not like ours, but similar to the ones they had
known as back in Brighton or Bodmin. In the
Cypriot sky, among our blue and white kites,
those foreign kites seemed like some strange
migratory birds.)
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Wood Carved, Stone Carved
and Painted Decoration
in the Traditional Architecture
of Cyprus (19th – 20th Century)
Euphrosyne Rizopoulou Egoumenidou
Associate Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, University of Cyprus
(fig.1)
With these words in his poem "Details in
Cyprus", George Seferis draws our attention
to two elements, the one wood, the other
stone, with which folk art decorated and
emphasised key points in the traditional architecture
(Kasdaglis (ed.) 1990, 16 and
fig.39 and 40).
It is not fortuitous that both decorated ecclesiastical
buildings; the owl, now in the Cyprus
Museum of Folk Art (AM 2337) on the door
of Ayios Mamas, Dhali (19th century) (fig.1)
The little owl was always there
perched on the key of Ayios Mamas,
blindly surrendering itself to the honey of the sun
here or there, now, in the past: it danced
with such a rhythm in the autumn.
Angels unfolded the sky
and a stone face with arched eyebrows gaped
in a corner of the roof …
and the carved "face with arched eyebrows"
a gargoyle on the church of Ayia Marina
at Pera Chorio. Both wood carving and
stone carving developed as arts that served
mainly ecclesiastical architecture and for its
ornamentation a very rich repertoire of motifs
was created, based on centuries long tradition
and usually charged with symbolic content.
Ecclesiastical decoration was a source
of inspiration for the embellishment of secular
architecture, urban and rural, to which

Decorated doorway
at the monastery
of Omodhos with
wood carved door
and ceiling.
Photo: Voula Kokkinou
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Wood door lintel metopidi with carved decoration from an old house in Kathydata (fig.3)
the same craftsmen brought similar designs
in simplified form and in diverse variations.
Wood carved decoration is often accompanied
by painting on icon screens, the place set
aside for women and on other examples of
the ecclesiastical post-Byzantine tradition, but
also on souvantzes (shelves on the wall) or wall
cupboards (fig.2) in the traditional house. On
the other hand, the wood carved and painted
decoration of urban mansions echoes other
influences, as we shall see below, while folk
wall-paintings also followed different paths.
Wood carved and plaster decoration
The wood carved decorative elements of the
traditional house, when they exist, enrich the
basic wood work, especially on the façade. We
usually come across them on the lintel and on
the doorposts of the outer door, and also on
the door panels or on the metopidi (wooden
plank) over the door.
The most common themes on the decorated
door posts are scaly carvings in successive
rows, wavy or crooked lines (zig-zag), rosettes
in combination with triangles, and other sim-
ple linear designs. In the middle of the lintel
there is sometimes a cross in relief, framed by
rosettes, birds, lions facing each other, or other
designs (e.g. the house of Makris, Kakopetria,
a house in Katydata, fig.3). On panelled
doors, the katevatis is decorated as a rule.
This is a strip of wood which is fixed to the
edge of the left door and covers the whole
length of the point of contact of the two door
panels. The door panels usually have simple
carved decoration of parallel, vertical grooves
or continuous lozenges, which cover the whole
surface, in contrast to the exceptionally fine
decoration of closely placed designs with variations
of rosettes framed by a curved line, or
triangles arranged in six-point stars, which
decorate the doors of churches (doors on
the Church of Archangelos and at the Monastery
of Ayios Ioannis Lampadistis: Kasdaglis (ed.)
1990, fig. 71,72, or at the Monastery of the
Holy Cross at Omodhos: Papademetriou 2003,
130:11). More complex decoration is characteristic
of the panelled doors, both of ecclesiastical
buildings and of traditional houses
(see for example the outer door of the Monastery
of Ayios Ioannis Chrystomos at Koutsoven-

Wood carved painted wall cupboard, Kyrenia
Folk Museum (fig.2)
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tis (Kyrenia): Papademetriou 2003, 41, fig.56,
and the door of a derelict house in Lapithos:
Sinos 1976, 105, fig.106). Exceptionally, solitary
motifs appear carved on the outer door,
such as a cypress tree on a house in the Karpass,
or more designs, such as crosses, hexagrams,
rosettes, human figures etc. in free combination
on a 19 th century house at Athienou (Ohnefalsch-Richter
1895, 72b).
Wood carved decoration of linear designs,
rosettes and a cross is also met on the cover of
the peculiar lock mechanism which opened
with a toothed wooden key (fig.4) (Papacharambous
1968, 18. Magda Ohnefalsch-Richter
(1913) 1994, fig.8, 15-16, drawing 3, illustrates
and explains the mechanism of a similar
lock in the village of Politiko. See also
Papdemetriou 2003, 91, fig.138-139, and 94,
fig.143. An elaborately decorated lock on a
door from Gourri is exhibited in the Rural
Museum of Fikardou village).
The variety of wooden railings at windows
is particularly interesting. These either reach
up to the middle of the opening or carry on
above the horizontal divider and cover the
whole opening. These railings, known as parmatzia
(from the Turkish word parmak = finger)
appear in various types of vertical dividers
(parmatzia xeyirista) or latticing and with a
variety of outline shape (e.g. on houses in the
villages of Katydata, Vasileia, Kakopetria, Karavas,
also latticing at Lapithos: Sinos 1976,
109, ill. 110 and Papdemetriou 2003, 130:3).
The parmatzia are combined with shutters of
wooden planks, which open and close inwards.
There were no window panes. By breaking
the uniformity of the masonry, the parmatzia
add a special local colour to the traditional
architecture and were widespread in all regions
of the island. In contrast, the latticed windows
of the urban houses show Ottoman influence.
Smaller openings, high in the walls, a little
lower than the edge of the roof, served to give
light and to ventilate the house but, over
and above their practical importance, they
offered an opportunity for creating an exceptional
decorative element of the traditional
house. These are the arseres or foullides or
anafoti(d)es (fig.5), openings that are usually
rectangular in shape and covered with a perforated
plaster slab, which break the monotony
of the white surface of the walls and allow
the light to enter through their lacy designs.
Rosettes, stars, crosses, lozenges, two-headed
eagles, flowers, cypress trees etc. comprise
the repertoire of the anafotides, expressing
the inexhaustible inspiration of the folk craftsmen
and their tendency to combine practical
use with beauty, life with art. A rare example
of an arsera was in the pottery workshop of
Aristophanis in Lapithos. There, in the place
of the plaster slab there was a wooden frame
with parmatzia arranged like rays, in a wooden
frame (Papdemetriou 2003, 40 fig. 55).
There are sometimes arseres also in the wall
above the row of arches in the portico at the
front of the house. In rare cases the date of the
house is also shown on the perforated slab,
as on a house in Acheritou, in the Famagusta
District (Archive of Vanna Hadjimichali,
Department of Antiquities). Another rare phenomenon
is the appearance of plaster decoration
in the fan-shaped opening over the door.
Such a case is the decoration on the outer door
of a house in Athienou, which has been demolished.
The perforated slab was without doubt
modelled on the decoration of the Gothic
monuments on the island, like Bellapais.
In the interior spaces, wood carved decoration
is usually met on fitted corner cupboards

Wooden carved lock, Kyrenia Folk Art Museum (detail) (fig.4)
and souvantzes, shelves on the wall for various
utensils. Apart from the carved and painted
souvantzes, known as the Akanthou type from
the village of the same name east of Kyrenia,
various shelves embedded in the walls were
made of plaster. The souvantza stretched along
the length of one or two walls, while on the
same wall there could also be a second souvantza
at a lower height. In some areas (e.g.
the villages of Tochni, Maroni, Vikla etc.) there
are sometimes souvantzes which form an elevated
rectangular frame in the middle of the
wall, perhaps for a picture, (fig.6) or small corner
cupboards with perforated decoration.
The visible surface of these shelves offered
itself for decoration, which is directly connected
with woodcarving since it was made
with a carved mould made of wood, about
one metre long. The same imprint is repeat-
ed along the length of the wall and the length
of the mould used is clearly visible. In the same
space there may be souvantzes made from different
moulds. The carved wooden moulds
were works of art, were passed on from father
to son when he continued the trade, and even
went round with the craftsmen from village
to village. Today, a few examples survive in
museums and private collections.
The themes which adorn the plaster souvantzes
cover a wide range. The main ones are angels,
crosses, vine with leaves, grapes and birds, lions
facing each other and framing a tree, dragons,
double-headed eagles, fish, anchors, rosettes
and other plant and geometric motifs in
parallel horizontal bands. Some of the above
themes are repeated on the front of chests,
while the vine, cross, angels, dragons etc. come
from the very rich repertoire of carved icon
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screens. The influence of ecclesiastical art and
the religious character of certain motifs are
evident. In rare cases the initials are imprinted
of the builder who used the wooden mould
and the date (see e.g. moulds from the Karpass
in Papademetriou 1992, 83, fig. 69, and 61,
fig. 36).
A remarkable theme is that of the lions face
to face and chained to a tree, which appears
on carved icon screens, like that in the church
of Ayios Georgios at Alona (Papademetriou
2003, 87, fig. 129) and in the church of the
Holy Cross at Ayia Eirene, dated 1802 (Stylianou,
Stylianou 1965, 81-98, fig. XXVI) and also
on the carved wooden lintel of an outer
door at Ayios Elias in the Karpass (Papademetriou
1992, 78, fig. 61) on chests and on stone
relief . In mainland Greece, the chained lion
Souvantza made of plaster in an old house in Vikla (fig.6)
is depicted in wall paintings on the façade of
mansions of the 19 th century as a guardian
of a repellent nature (e.g. on the Kontou mansion
(1840) in Ano Volos: Kizis 1994, 317,
fig. 513 and on a wall painting of 1818 on the
house of P. Kornoutos, also at Pelion: Makris
1976,198).
In the interior of traditional houses which
have a double room (dichoro) with a wooden
nefka (central beam), the architrave and
the side supports of the pillar propping it up
are also available for decoration which – where
it exists – is composed of simple, carved, geometric
designs. Worthy of note are two such
architraves from Rizokarpasso which, apart
from vertical parallel grooves, have, on the first
one, a cross in relief (Sinos 1976, 115, ill. 112)
and on the second, a flower pot with leaves

The House of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios. Carved ceiling of the reception room
and rosettes in the centre and two scrolls in
the style of an Aeolian capital at the ends. The
scrolls are repeated in miniature at the base of
the flower pot (Ohnefalsch-Richter 1895,
60:b). The decoration is symmetrical, plain
and tasteful.
Much more complex are the carved wooden
brackets which support the nefkes in the richer
examples of urban architecture, as in the
mansion in Axiothea Street (19 th century) in
Nicosia. Here, a rare example has also survived
of a wooden carved ceiling with a central medallion,
from the centre of which hangs a pome-
granate, and decorated cornices on the
walls. The rich decoration is similar to that of
the Synod room of the Monastery of the Holy
Cross at Omodhos.
Finally, there is the painted, carved and gilded
ceiling, in the reception room of the
mansion of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis
Kornessios, which dates back to the end of the
18 th century. The ceiling is unique in Cyprus.
More simple wood carved decoration adorned
the ceilings of other urban houses but it has
survived in only a very few cases.
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Arsena with a cross in the portico of Ayios Heraklidios
Monastery (Magda Ohnefalsch–Richter,
Griechische Sitten und Gebräuche auf Cypern, Berlin
1913, plate 17:1) (fig. 5)
Stone carved decoration
Stone carving as architectural decoration developed
more in the areas where stone was the
basic building material and was suitable for
working. The craftsmen selected the stones
they used for carved decoration and, when
there was no suitable local material, they
brought it from other areas. They usually carved
the yellowish sandstone from Yerolakkos
and Ayia Paraskevi, pale stone from Mammari,
Ayia Phyla and Tochni, reddish stone
from Pyroi, yellowish-white stone from Oroklini
etc. The stone suitable for carved decoration
was called athasopetra or aspropetra by the
craftsmen (Kanthos 1981, 93, Ionas 1988,
135-41).
The craftsman wetted the stone so that it would
not rub during fashioning with the smilari
(chisel), marked out the design and, after
removing the superfluous pieces (to xechondrisma),
he carved the motifs with fine, pointed
smilarka. Finally, he smoothed the surface
with a file (Kanthos 1981, 91-95).
The richest carved stone decoration is associated
with ecclesiastical buildings, where it is
placed on doors and windows but especially
on the bell-towers, heavily adorned with relief,
in the decoration of which the master craftsmen
of Kaimakli excelled.
In secular traditional architecture the main
part of the house which lends itself to decoration
and show is the entrance on the façade
or the outer door, if the house is built back
from the street.
On stone built constructions, the frame of the
outer door and of the windows is usually
different from the rest of the building and is
built with carefully hewn stone. The keystones
on the lintels are usually carved but in many
cases the decoration extends to the doorposts,
creating elegant stone door frames. Wider
frames are fashioned around the opening of
the entrance with straight, curved or stepped
outline, with half-columns, waves, bands of
various geometric designs, compositions in
relief of floral motifs e.g. branches with leaves
and pomegranates, double-headed eagles and
other birds, animals etc.
The decoration of stone lintels of houses is
impressive not only in urban centres but in
rural districts as well.
Gothic style door-frames, richly decorated
pointed arches, brought from older buildings
or of later construction in imitation of medieval
models, survive incorporated into traditional
buildings. The doors of the Monastery of
the Holy Cross at Omodhos, with serrated
bands of relief, are of such a type, and very

The façade of the wine press in Omodhos. Entrance
with a stone carved pointed arch (fig. 7)
similar to them is the door of the winepress
in the same village (fig.7). The entrance to the
mansion of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis in
old Nicosia is similar.
Entrances decorated with neo-classical motifs
of the 19 th century make up a special category.
The half-columns, carved in limestone,
which terminate in variations of ancient
capitals are their main characteristic, while the
keystone of the arch of the entrance is frequently
adorned with floral motifs in relief
(stylised anthemion, rosettes, bouquets etc.),
the double-headed eagle, angel, cross etc.(fig.8).
The date may be carved or fashioned on the
iron grating which covers the fanlight over the
panelled wooden door.
Other notable examples of the art of stone
carving are the decorated architectural features,
capitals or arches, which we come across
in the types of houses with porch or portico
with a row of arches (fig.9). The arches are
supported on low columns or pillars with
crowns of analogous shape, which facilitate
the joining of the arch to its base. Their outline
is emphasised with carving and their surfaces
adorned with simple geometric motifs,
bands, rosettes etc.
In traditional houses with the interior in the
form of a dichoro (double room) with arch
(palati), analogous decoration is observed at
the points where the arch "fades" into the walls
or ends in a pilaster incorporated into the wall.
These points usually have simple but varied
relief decoration of geometric and floral motifs.
The inclination to create variations with similar
motifs is so strong that the phenomenon
is observed of the ends of the same arch having
different decoration. Carved decoration
(e.g. rosettes) may also emphasise the keystone
of the arch of the dichoro.
Another category of stone relief is the protective
lintel of churches or houses and on other
traditional buildings such as mills, winepresses,
bridges, fountains. These are usually
plaques on which are carved in relief symbolic
elements which are sometimes combined with
religious sayings or prayers in abbreviated form,
inscriptions stating the owner or founder and
the date of the building. In theses cases, the
decorative designs, when they exist, have a secondary,
complementary character (fig.10).
On most protective lintels the focal point is
the cross of various types, usually with trefoilshaped
ends to the arms, and with a fan-shaped
or triangular base which represents Golgotha.
The cross is often combined with the instruments
of the martyrdom (Arma Christi), the
spear and the sponge placed diagonally on the
arms of the cross and between them the Greek
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letters IC XC NI KA. On such a talisman
from Rizokarpasso, the Crucified is depicted
between the spear and the sponge in the
shape of a disproportionately large face with
staring eyes. The date 1898 is carved (Sinos
1976, 100, fig.101). The cross may be surrounded
by a leafy branch or be combined
with other floral designs. In another case, the
composition of floral designs with a background
of a trilobed opening in an arch, betrays
the influence of the medieval monuments
of the island (Papademetriou 1992, 18, fig.
17), while other examples seem to be influenced
by coats of arms. Elsewhere the cross is
framed by rosettes, lions, birds and even human
figures. It is also combined with a capital of
the ancient type which is placed on top ( Sinos
1976, 106, fig. 107: protective lintel from an
old house in Karavas).
Decorated doorway in the mansion in Axiothea Street (fig.8)
Ecclesiastical woodcarvings echo lions facing
each other, chained to a tree in the middle,
while cherubim fly above (Papademetriou
1992, 46, fig. 13). The lions are turned
to the front and their anthropomorphic characteristics
emphasise the apotropaic character
of the depiction. The theme of the lion,
well-known from ancient art, is revived and
becomes more popular during the Venetian
period. It is recycled, like many other motifs
which pass through the crucible of popular
creation to be introduced into traditional art.
On most protective lintels the religious
character is evident. The protective lintel on
a house in the village of Lazania is the most
eloquent example of this category (fig.11).
The whole surface of the rectangular plaque
of limestone, measuring 42x28.5 cm, is covered
with relief depictions, the first letters of

eligious sayings such as T(opos) K(raniou)
P(aradeisos) G(egonen) (The Place of the Skull
has become Paradise), an inscription recording
the owner’s name, abbreviated, and an
apotropaic inscription. In the centre there is
a large cross with the symbols of the passion,
flanked by the moon and sun, above which
can be seen the date, 1817. To the right of the
cross a guard/soldier is drawing his sword,
while on the left, from the bottom corner of
the plaque, appears the hand of God showing
the cross to a small devil in the form of a
goat, who is standing terrified before it. The
inscription on the top part of the same side
is directed to him: "YOU SEE, SATAN, THE
ARROW THAT HAS HIT YOU. GO FAR
AWAY FROM THIS HOUSE." In Greece
similar inscriptions accompany the Archangel
Michael as guardian on lintels (Korre 1978,
51 and 403, ill. 368) and a somewhat similar
inscription, with the date 1811, is preserved
on the wall next to the main gate at the house
of Lazaros Kountouriotis on the island of
Hydra (Bechraki (ed.) 2002,29).
A folk craftsman – in this case the well-known
artist Skevophylax Mitrophanis from Lazania
village, a deacon at that time at the
nearby monastery of Makhairas – rarely
expressed himself so graphically on a protective
lintel of a simple house, with an accumulation
of traditional symbolic and depictive
elements, the resultant combination of
which shows unequivocally the desire to protect
the house with the divine presence and
the simultaneous warding off of evil. Without
doubt all the other simpler protective lintels
conceal the same meaning (Egoumenidou
1984, 375-388).
The richly carved stone decoration of a house
of the early 20 th century in Mitsero village also
Stone carved decoration in a house in Pera Orinis
(fig. 9)
has a religious character. It is perhaps a unique
case of a traditional house in Cyprus which is
decorated with 40 stone reliefs, 17 around the
entrance and 23 on the arch of the dichoro, all
creations of the owner Sofronis Haralambous,
a farmer but also a skilful carver of wood
and stone.
This is a panorama of folk stone carving with
themes which can be differentiated into:
Carved stone plaque used as protective lintel in a
house in the village of Lazania (fig. 10)
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1) compositions of a decorative character (trees,
a variety of flowers, rosettes, stars, vases
of flowers, birds – doves, eagle – in pairs,
alone or in combinations with flowers etc.
2) religious symbols and scenes inspired by
the Old or New Testament (cross at Golgotha,
St George and St Demetrios, a bishop
giving the blessing, a martyr enduring
death by being sawn apart, the sacrifice
of Isaac, a charioteer, the Archangel Michael,
the Annunciation, cherubim etc.)
3) Magic or deterrent symbols (solar symbols,
hexagrams, palms of hands etc.).
Another scene contains a ship with a wheel
(steamship?). (Relief presentation and interpretation
of the themes of the decoration of
the house at Mitsero, see in: Rizopoulou-
Egoumenidou and Seretis 2000, 407-431).
At the same time as the religious symbols,
there also appear on protective lintels
themes of magic, pagan character, which contain
mainly depictions of demonic, zoomorphic
animals or also human faces with horrifying
symbolism.
Such examples are a plaque with a depiction
of a demonic being with beard, from a
house in Lapithos, a zoomorphic face carved
onto a stone incorporated over the lintel of a
house in Fikardou village (Egoumenidou 1984,
plate LXXXIV: 6,3), the face of a moustached
Carved stone plaque used as protective lintel above
the door of a house in the village Lazania (fig. 11)
man in the wall of a house in Acheritou (archive
of Vanna Hadjimichali, Department of Antiquities)
etc.
The co-existence of a cross and apotropaic
mask in the water mill of Kykkos Monastery
at Kalopanayiotis is particularly interesting:
above the keystone of the arch of the aqueduct
of the mill there is a plaque with a cross
in relief and an inscription recording the owner’s
name, while a fully carved man’s face with
moustache projects from the base of the plaque.
The use of similar masks at key points of buildings
(churches, houses, bridges, fountains,
even on pottery kilns) is very widespread in
Greece and the Balkans generally. They are
interpreted as guardians/protectors but also
as portraits of the foremen or owners or as
"good creatures" for the protection of the
building (Korre, 1978, 80-89).
The cross is also combined with a pentagram
or a hexagram on stone relief protective
lintels. An analogous mixture of Christian and
averting magic symbols is also observed on
manuscripts, magic spells etc.
In the conscience of the simple man, primitive,
pagan and religious concepts did not conflict
with each other and it is natural that
the syncretism of folk beliefs should find expression
in folk art also.
Carved stone architectural decoration, beyond
know-how, artistic disposition and the level
of aesthetics, gives us the ability to "read"
the beliefs, conceptions and the values of
traditional society.
Painted decoration
In contrast with wood carved and stone carved
decoration, painted decoration is exceptionally
rare in the traditional secular architecture
of Cyprus. It presupposes and shows off in the

Marble slab with the winged Lion of Venice.The House of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios
most eloquent way the prosperity and high
social position of the owner of the house.
In urban architecture a striking exception of
a wall-painted interior space is the reception
room (to aspastikon, i sala) in the mansion of
the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis, which dates
to the end of the 18 th century. The painted,
carved and gilded ceiling (fig.13, from the
Department of Antiquities), the multicoloured
floral compositions on the wooden panels covering
the walls between the windows and
the mural of Constantinople framed by angels
with trumpets in an apse-like niche over the
wooden wall-cupboards, may be compared
with similar contemporary decorations of mansions
in the Turcobaroque style, throughout
the Ottoman empire from the Balkans to
the East, from the mansions in Northern
Greece (e.g. Siatista, Ambelakia et al.) to the
konak of Çakir Aga at Birgi and the house
of Murat in Bursa. Despite the local variations,
in the painted decoration of mansions
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Arch with stone carved religious symbols in a
house in Mitsero (fig. 12)
of the 18 th and 19 th centuries a common
style is identified, in which the blending of
eastern and western artistic elements is expressed
with a clear resemblance between areas far distant
from each other.
The fine reception room of Hadjigeorgakis
which occupies the southern end of the building’s
east wing and projects slightly on the
western side, had painted decoration also on
the outside: a band with geometric designs in
various colours, which ran round the top part
of the walls below the projecting wooden cornice
of the roof. Only parts of the band, painted
on plaster, have been preserved and these
are exhibited in the house of Hadjigeorgakis
(Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 1999, 15-20).
A century later, painted decoration on houses
reflects the influence of neo-classicism. Sur-
viving examples are isolated but their presence
in Lefkara is characteristic. Because of the
trade in embroideries, Lefkara had close links
with Europe and the financial means to follow
the decorative trends of the time. The
painted decoration is very discreet, with gentle
colours and fine lines. It is confined to narrow
bands round ceilings and to imitations
of marble on the bottom part of the walls.
As regards folk art, very few examples have
survived in Cyprus and are preserved only
in fragments. G.Ch.Papacharalambous also
emphasises the rarity of wall- paintings in
his book on the Cypriot house (Papacharalambous
1968,13).
In view of this large gap, parts of wall-paintings
of a popular nature which were removed
from a house of traditional architecture in the
village of Pera Orinis shortly before it was
demolished, acquire great interest. They are
kept at the Department of Antiquities. The
whole composition is not clear. On one piece
there is an inscription, bordered by lions, relating
to the birth of a son, while on other
fragments of wall paintings from the same
room one can distinguish a steamship, a double-headed
eagle, sea-horses, curtains, bands
with geometric designs et al. (Rizopoulou-
Egoumenidou 1987,48).
The most important examples of folk painting
that decorate traditional buildings come
from old coffee shops. These are wall-paintings
of great size, with pictorial representations
among which the depictions of the arrest
of Athanasios Diakos and of the athlete Panayis
Koutalianos predominate (fig.14). George
Seferis located a wall-painting with the
arrest of the hero of 1821 in Christodoulos’
coffee shop in Peristerona, together with depictions
of a sea battle, a city with monumental
domed buildings et al. (Kasdaglis (ed.) 1990,

The arrest of the Greek hero Athanasios Diakos. Wall painting in the “Kazino” of Kritou Terra, RDAC
1989 (fig. 14)
fig. 92-94). Parts of wall-paintings of the year
1892, with the arrest of the hero Athanasios
Diakos and the athlete Koutalianos, who is
holding cannons, were also found in a coffee
shop in Yeri, from where they were removed
and are now kept at the Cyprus Folk Art Museum
(Papademetriou 1996, 80-81).
Perhaps the only examples of wall-paintings
which are preserved in situ are at the old
coffee shop, known as "Kazino" at Kritou Terra,
in the Paphos district. They are painted on
plaster and were later covered with whitewash.
The main representation is on the west wall,
which is not broken by openings. It consists
of two scenes with a tree depicted in the middle,
with leaves and fruit and a snake wound
round the trunk. One scene includes an armed
man in a high headdress resembling a fez with
The athlete Koutalianos holding the heavy cannons
“Kazino” Kritou Terra (fig. 15)
the fringed headscarf which the Zeibekides
wore. A young woman is following him, holding
flowers, while more flowers between the
two figures set the scene in a spring landscape.
Both faces are turned towards the main scene,
31

32
Painted decoration in the reception room of the House of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios,
Nicosia (fig. 13)
the arrest of Athanasios Diakos, and are unquestionably
connected with it. The young hero
is standing between two armed soldiers, holding
his broken sword in his right hand.
On the next, south wall, the top half of a representation
of Koutalianos has been preserved
(the opening of a door destroyed the bottom
half). Koutalianos is demonstrating his
physical strength by holding 2 cannons. His
garment, red with black spots, clearly denotes
the skin of the leopard which he had killed
at some time.
The rest of the decoration of the dichoro room
consists of floral themes, wreath, branch with
leaves, a flowerpot with leaves and roses, which
is repeated with variations of colour within a
window, with drawn back curtains and
three crosses on top. High up, a garland
with tassel-like ornaments runs round the walls
and on the bottom part there is a band with
a meander pattern. These decorative elements
which reflect the influence of neo-classical
themes can be dated to the turn of the 19 th
to the 20 th century (Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou
1989, 195-299).
The portrayal of the arrest of Diakos on several
wall-paintings that survive in Cyprus, are
without doubt modelled on lithographs and
other depictions which circulated widely during
this period. In Greece the same scene
was a particularly popular theme in art, with
regular production from 1841, when Demides’
lithograph was printed, until the second half
of the 20 th century (For Athanasios Diakos in
Greek art see Papaspyrou-Karademetriou
1986).
In Cyprus the subject of the arrest of Athanasios
Diakos was also adopted by folk artists
and often portrayed in pictures painted on
glass (fig.15).
The depiction of the legendary hero and of
the athlete of world-wide fame, Koutal-

ianos, in coffee shops, the main gathering place
for the lower classes of the population, cannot
be interpreted except in the context of the
ideological and political climate which prevailed
on the island during this period (end
of the19 th century/first decades of the 20 th century).
The presentation of subjects of heroic
and national content, of models worthy of
admiration and imitation, is linked with the
ideology of the Great Idea, towards the realisation
of which the liberation struggle of 1821
made the first contribution. In these cases, the
works of folk art which adorn the traditional
architecture express the national conscience,
the national ideals which Cyprus served too,
with its voluntary participation in common
struggles by the side of Greece.
Foreign Bibliography
Ionas, I., 1988: La Maison Rurale de Chypre ( XVIII-
XXe siecle). Aspects et Techniques de Construction, Publications
du Centre de Recherche Scientifique de Chypre,
XII, Nicosie.
Ohnefalsch – Richter, Max and Magda, 1985: Studies
in Cyprus. Introduction: Andreas Malecos. Translations
and Excerpts: Anna G. Marangou. General Supervision:
Anna G. Marangou and Andreas Malecos. General
Coordination: Marina Vryonidou – Sofianou.
Cultural Centre Cyprus Popular Bank, Nicosia.
Ohnefalcsh – Richter, Magda (1913) 1994: Greek Customs
and Traditions in Cyprus ( Greek edition), Translation
- Introduction - Comments and Supervision :
Ana Marangou, Cultural Centre Cyprus PopularBank,
Nicosia 1994 ( first edition in German: Griechische Sitten
und Gebrauche auf Cypern, Berlin 1913).
Rizopoulou – Egoumenidou, E., 1999: The House of
the Dragoman of Cyprus Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios: Façade
and Interior Decoration Proceedings of the Seminar on
Surveying and Restoration of Decorated Façades, Genoa,
9 July 1999, 15-20.
Rizopoulou – Egoumenidou, E., Seretis, K., 2000: Folk
Art Stone Carvings in Traditional Houses in the Village
of Mitsero, Report of the Department of Antiquities
Cyprus, 407-431.
Stylianou, A., Stylianou, J., 1965: “The Painted Chapel
of the Holy Cross, Agia Irene, Troodos Range of Mountains",
Cyprus Studies (Greek edition), vol. 18, 81-98.
Greek Bibliography
∏ÁÔ˘ÌÂÓ›‰Ô˘, º., 1984: §Èı·Ó¿ÁÏ˘Ê· «Ê˘Ï·ÎÙ¿»
ÛappleÈÙÈÒÓ ÙÔ˘ ¯ˆÚÈÔ‡ §·˙·ÓÈ¿, Report of the Department
of Antiquities Cyprus, 375-388.
∫¿ÓıÔ˜, £., 1981: §·˚ÎÔ› Ù¯ӛÙ˜ Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘,
¢‹ÌÔ˜ §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·˜, §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.
∫¿Û‰·ÁÏ˘, ∂.Ã. (ÂappleÈÌ.), 1990: ∫‡appleÚÔ˜. ªÓ‹ÌË Î·È
·Á¿appleË Ì ÙÔ Ê·Îfi ÙÔ˘ °ÈÒÚÁÔ˘ ÂʤÚË, ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈÎfi
∫¤ÓÙÚÔ §·˚΋˜ ∆Ú¿appleÂ˙·˜, §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.
∫›˙˘, °., 1994: ËÏÈÔÚ›ÙÈÎË √ÈÎÔ‰ÔÌ›·, ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈÎfi
∆¯ÓÔÏÔÁÈÎfi ÿ‰Ú˘Ì· ∂∆µ∞, ∞ı‹Ó·.
∫ÔÚÚ¤, ∫., 1978: ∏ ·ÓıÚÒappleÈÓË ÎÂÊ·Ï‹ ı¤Ì·
·appleÔÙÚÂappleÙÈÎfiÛÙË ÓÂÔÂÏÏËÓÈ΋ Ï·˚΋ Ù¤¯ÓË, ∞ı‹Ó·È.
ª·ÎÚ‹˜, ∫., 1976: ∏ Ï·˚΋ Ù¤¯ÓË ÙÔ˘ ‹ÏÈÔ˘,
∂ΉÔÙÈÎfi˜ √›ÎÔ˜ «ª¤ÏÈÛÛ·», ∞ı‹Ó·.
ªapple¯ڿÎË, ∂. (ÂappleÈÌ.), 2002: ∏ πÛÙÔÚÈ΋ √ÈΛ·
§·˙¿ÚÔ˘ ∫Ô˘ÓÙÔ˘ÚÈÒÙË – ⁄‰Ú·, πÛÙÔÚÈ΋ ηÈ
∂ıÓÔÏÔÁÈ΋ ∂Ù·ÈÚ›· Ù˘ ∂ÏÏ¿‰Ô˜, ∞ı‹Ó·.
·apple·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 1992: ∂ıÓÔÁÚ·ÊÈο ∫·Úapple·Û›·˜,
§Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.
·apple·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 1996: ∏ Ï·˚΋ Ù¤¯ÓË Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘.
ªÔ˘ÛÂ›Ô §·˚΋˜ ∆¤¯Ó˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘ – ∂Ù·ÈÚ›· ∫˘appleÚÈ·ÎÒÓ
appleÔ˘‰ÒÓ, ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈÎfi ∫¤ÓÙÚÔ §·˚΋˜ ∆Ú¿appleÂ˙·˜,
§Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.
·apple·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 2003: ∏ Ù¤¯ÓË ÙÔ˘ ͇ÏÔ˘ ÛÙËÓ
∫‡appleÚÔ, ÀappleÔ˘ÚÁÂ›Ô ·È‰Â›·˜ Î·È ÔÏÈÙÈÛÌÔ‡ –
ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈΤ˜ ÀappleËÚÂۛ˜, §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.
·apple·Ûapple‡ÚÔ˘ – ∫·Ú·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 1986: √ £·Ó¿Û˘
¢È¿ÎÔ˜ ÛÙËÓ Ù¤¯ÓË, πÛÙÔÚÈ΋ Î·È ∂ıÓÔÏÔÁÈ΋ ∂Ù·ÈÚ›·
Ù˘ ∂ÏÏ¿‰Ô˜, ∞ı‹Ó·.
·apple·¯·Ú·Ï¿ÌappleÔ˘˜, °.Ã., 1968: ∏ ΢appleÚȷ΋ ÔÈΛ·,
¢ËÌÔÛȇ̷ٷ ÙÔ˘ ∫¤ÓÙÚÔ˘ ∂appleÈÛÙËÌÔÓÈÎÒÓ ªÂÏÂÙÒÓ
ππ, §Â˘ÎÒÛÈ·.
ƒÈ˙ÔappleÔ‡ÏÔ˘ – ∏ÁÔ˘ÌÂÓ›‰Ô˘, º., 1987: ÙÔȯ›·
Ï·˚΋˜ ‰È·ÎÔÛÌËÙÈ΋˜ Ù¤¯Ó˘ ÛÙËÓ apple·Ú·‰ÔÛȷ΋
·Ú¯ÈÙÂÎÙÔÓÈ΋ Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘, ∞Ú¯·ÈÔÏÔÁ›· 24, 44-
49.
ƒÈ˙ÔappleÔ‡ÏÔ˘ – ∏ÁÔ˘ÌÂÓ›‰Ô˘, ∂., 1989: ∆ÔȯÔÁڷʛ˜
Ï·˚΋˜ Ù¤¯Ó˘ ÛÙÔ «∫·˙›ÓÔ» ÛÙËÓ ∫Ú‹ÙÔ˘ ∆¤ÚÚ·,
Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus,
195-202.
›ÓÔ˜, ., 1976: ∞Ó·‰ÚÔÌ‹ ÛÙË Ï·˚΋ ·Ú¯ÈÙÂÎÙÔÓÈ΋
Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘, ∞ı‹Ó·.
33

34
Greek Embassy Honours Solomos Frangoulides
The Embassy of Greece in collaboration with
the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation
organised an exhibition under the symbolic
title "The Embassy of Greece Honours
Solomos Frangoulides" dedicated to the remarkable
Cypriot painter. The Minister of Education
and Culture, Mr. Pefkios Georgiades
opened the exhibition on May 6th, 2005.
Greek Ambassador, Christos Panagopoulos,
in the exhibition catalogue address, pointed
out that the realisation of this exhibition
redeems a moral obligation in memory of the
artist who so much loved Greece and, in his
will, donated his personal collection to the
Greek state. It was a gesture of gratitude for
the support he was offered during the last years
of his life.
For the first time in 19 years Cypriot art lovers
had the privilege to see the Frangoulides collection
of the Greek Embassy, impressive both
in excellence and quantity, a great number
of oil paintings, sketches, drawings, and memorabilia.
The exhibition also included some
religious paintings from the churches of Agros
Minister of Education and Culture, Mr. P. Georgiades,
Ms Lefki Michaelidou, Ms Olga Mentzafou
and the Greek Ambassador, Mr. C. Panagopoulos
at the exhibition opening
and Moutoullas and some other works belonging
to 17 private collectors and the Bishoprics
of Limassol and Morfou.
The Greek Ambassador made a special
mention to the organisers of the exhibition
and congratulated the Chairman of the Bank
of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, Mr. Yiannis
Kypri and Mrs Lefki Michaelidou, Director
of the Foundation for sparing no effort to
make this exhibition a success..
Solomos Frangoulides 1902 - 1981
Frangoulides was born in 1902 in Pano Zodia
in a family of farmers. He was attracted to
painting from an early age. "It was at the gymnasium
that my instinct for art awoke", he
wrote in an autobiographical note. "Since then
it has been both the food that sustains me and
the thorn in my side. It is my substitute for
all the wealth".
After graduating in 1920, he accidentally met
a Russian refugee, Elia Karishiev, who had
studied art in Paris. Recognising Frangoulides’
interest in painting he offered to give him lessons.
During these first lessons he acquired
the fundamental precepts to which he adhered
throughout his career: in rendering the human
body he had to concentrate on ample movement
and great mass.
For one year, in 1923, he worked as an elementary
teacher without qualifications and
with the money he saved, he set off for Athens
where he enrolled at the Higher School of the
Fine Arts in 1924. His teachers were Nicolaos
Lytras, George Iacovides, Spyros Vikatos, Pavlos
Mathiopoulos and George Roilos. He came

Self–portrait, oil, 1940. Greek Embassy collection
35

36
top of his class in the first semester examinations
and was automatically promoted to
the second year.
Although he had to do all sorts of odd jobs to
secure his livelihood, he continued to excel in
his studies. As a result of his outstanding
achievements in his exams he received a monthly
allowance from Antonios Benakis which
offered a temporary relief. When he graduated
in 1930 he shared the "Philadelphio Prize"
with Manolis Zepos.
For two years he remained in Athens and
worked as an illustrator at the "Hellenic Letters"
and "Nea Estia" magazines. But life in
Athens was not easy and, in 1932 when
Photis Kontoglou proposed to him to paint
the church of Agros he decided to return to
Cyprus and try his hand in iconography. As
he recalls in his autobiography, the period of
Wine–press, oil, 1937. Solon Papachristoforou collection
two years he spent to complete this project
was one of the happiest of his life. With regard
to the rather freer style he used, he reveals:
"I completely forgot traditional religious painting
and relied on my own feelings. For each
icon I would draw a preliminary sketch in
charcoal, down to the slightest detail and then
I would make a true copy turning the tones
into colour. I used Rubens’ method. This was
a positive basis for my subsequent development,
which I owe to the first experiments
with methods and systems which I freely used
in Agros. Until this day, this work has remained
in my heart, even though it is one of my earliest".
Back to Athens, in 1934, he taught drawing
at the Sivitanideios Technical School and
later the Benakis Museum assigned him to
prepare drawings of the exhibits in the Museum’s
catalogue.

Fisherman’s house, oil, 1963. Bank of Cyprus collection
In 1936 he had his first one-man exhibition
at Parnassos which was favorably reviewed by
Dionysis Kokkinos in "Nea Estia" magazine,
Yiannis Panayiotopoulos and Gerasimos
Anninos in "Proia" newspaper and Achylleas
Kyron in "Estia".
Zacharias Papantoniou, then Director of the
National Gallery appreciated his work and
introduced him to the collector Ioannis Papastratos
who commissioned him to paint "Exodus
from Mesolongi", which was donated to
the Municipal Hall of this historic town.
With the outbreak of war, Frangoulides volunteered
and was sent to the front with the
"Spiritual Mobilisation". From there he would
send his illustrated correspondence to the "Hel-
lenic Letters". The German occupation found
him in Athens where he suffered hunger
and sordid poverty. Artists would meet at
the "Food Hall", organised in the great hall
of the Museum of Archaeology, which was to
become the Chamber of Fine Arts. He joined
the Greek Liberation Front (EAM) and
converted his room into a printing house where
he would print committed posters carrying
revolutionary messages in thousands of copies.
After liberation he worked for EAM newspaper
"Eleftheri Ellada" but as the gathering
clouds of the civil war were coming, he decided
to return to Cyprus in 1947.
Unfortunately, his leftist political convictions
made his employment as a teacher of art prac-
37

38
Report, oil, 1972. Greek Embassy collection
tically impossible. After a short spell in Nicosia
where he opened a small shop in Solonos street,
he settled in Karavostasi village where he spent
13 years of isolation. This is a fruitful period
of painting landscapes and especially seascapes,
his favourite subject. But he missed the
artistic dialogue. He wrote: "I pondered for
a moment how interaction and mutual influence
precipitates progress, how seminal problems
mature into solutions automatically upon
the sighting of another artist’s findings".
An aborted attempt to return to Greece, in
1958 brought him involuntarily to Venice for
a short while. This direct contact with the
great masters of the Venetian Renaissance had
a strong impact on him. Back to Cyprus, he
managed to solve his financial problem by
pioneering into the mushroom cultivation
and then he devoted himself to his personal
creativity. During this period he painted some
of his most important works like "Pieta", "A
Night at Karavostasi", "Scarecrow", "Study of
Sunrise".
In 1961 he participated in the Paris Salon of
Modern Art with his painting "Scarecrow".
Throughout his life Frangoulides laboured
tirelessly and tenaciously but he rarely
exhibited his work considering that there was
always room for improvement. He had seven
one-man exhibitions: 1936, Athens at Parnassos;
1953, Famagusta at Constantine Hotel;
1966, Nicosia at "Pnevmatiki Stegi;" 1972,
London at Cumberland Hotel; 1974, Nicosia
at Argo Gallery; 1976, Athens at Skopja Gallery;

One Night, oil, 1969. Andreas Zembylas collection
39

40
1977, Nicosia at Zygos Gallery.
After his exhibition in 1966 he received an
invitation to visit the Soviet Union and on his
return to Cyprus, the Soviet Embassy com-
Soldier, 1940, Solon Papachristoforou collection
New Testament, 1970, Church of Agros
missioned him to paint the portrait of Archbishop
Makarios. The painting entitled "A
Message of Freedom" was donated to the
Pushkin Museum in Moscow.
In 1972 he was awarded a silver medal in
the Biennale d’ Arte Sacra held in Foggia, Italy.
In the same year he had also the satisfaction
of being declared a pensioner of the Greek
state and granted a monthly allowance for the
rest of his life. That is the reason why he
bequeathed his private collection of his
work to the Greek state.
In the last years of his life, confined in his
house because of poor health, he applied himself
to still life, revealing, once again, his
love for nature in rich and vivid colours.
He died on the 9th of December, 1981.
Bibliography: Eleni S. Nikita: Solon Frangoulides, 1902-
1981, Cypriot Artists, The First Generation, Nicosia
2002, Publication of the Cultural Centre Laiki Group.
Olga Mentzafou: A Genuine Creator, Exhibition catalogue,
Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, 2005.

Leaps of Faith was an international exhibition
and multi-disciplinary arts project held in
Nicosia, in May 2005.
Designed by two internationally renowned
curators, Katerina Gregos and Erden Kosova
the event included happenings, public space
interventions, film screenings and concerts.
The venue was the war-ravaged Green Line
partitioning the capital of Cyprus where the
aggressive barbed wire, military debris and
shattered houses are a depressive reminder
of separation and past suffering.
The organisers of this thought-provoking event
hope that by exposing the absurdity of war
it will inspire alternative communication and
social change or what they call "political and
cultural cohabitation". Katerina Gregos explains:
"Our proposal evolved to organising an event
which would have the Green Line as a starting
point but actually spill out onto both sides
of the city thus creating a symbolic bridge
between them".
"The 23 artists whom we invited", Erden
Kosova adds, "have come from regions that
have experienced similar geographic and cultural
divisions, ethnic conflicts and some kind
of traumatic history like the Middle East,
Balkans, South Africa, Northern Ireland. Their
Dan Perjovschi (Romania)
Leaps of Faith
work contains some kind of experimentalism
and is based on a research and an intervention
into a social space and context".
Katerina Gregos further explains: "This project
is not about production of the art objects,
it is more about production of a discourse.
We wanted artists to come here and do research
and spontaneously respond to a specific geopolitical
situation.
Will the impact of this exhibition change the
status-quo? "We have modest expectations";
concludes Gregos. "But the project could be
an eye-opener and make people more engaged
and in the long-term, culture could evolve
in a more constructive way in Cyprus".
Athens-based Katerina Gregos has curated
over 25 exhibitions internationally and has
authored numerous artists’ catalogues. She
has lectured and participated in conferences,
biennials and art fairs internationally and is
a regular contributor to art periodicals.
Erden Kosova is based in Istanbul and London.
He contributes to contemporary art magazines
as a writer and editor and lectures on
socially and politically engaged art and culture.
His most recent curatorial project is
"Along the Gates of the Urban", which was
held both in Berlin and Istanbul.
Participating artists in exhibition:
ARTLAB (Great Britain), KATERINA ATTALIDES
(Cyprus), MARC BIJL (Netherlands), THE CALL #
192 (Maria Loizidou, Haris Pellapaisiotis, Socrates
Stratis / Cyprus), HUSSEIN CHALAYAN (Cyprus),
PHIL COLLINS (Great Britain), MINERVA CUEVAS
(Mexico), KENDELL GEERS (South Africa), SEJLA
KAMERIC (Bosnia), SERAP KANAY (Cyprus),
SIGALIT LANDAU (Israel), PANAYIOTIS MICHAEL
(Cyprus), DAN PERJOVSCHI (Romania), SUSAN
PHILIPS (Great Britain), PLATFORMA 9,81 (Croatia),
MINNA RAINIO & MARK ROBERTS (Finland),
AKRAM ZAATARI (Lebanon)
41

42
Cyprus World Heritage
The Convention concerning the Protection
of the World Cultural and Natural
Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in
1972 has signalled a new era for the preservation
of the cultural and natural sites
of the member-states. The Republic of
Cyprus ratified the World Heritage convention
in 1975, thus joining the family
of nations committed to the protection
of the world’s legacy from the past. Then
procedures started for the inscription of
the Cyprus sites on the most famous register
of the world, the UNESCO World
Heritage List.
The rigorous nature of the criteria for evaluating
proposals for inscription ensure
that the World Heritage List comprises
properties that are of truly outstanding
nature. Once a property is inscribed on
the List it has a major claim to conservation
against both natural and man-made
hazards so that future generations will
have the same opportunity as ourselves
to derive pleasure and inspiration from
these exquisite vestiges of the past. The
preservation of this rich cultural heritage
(more than 1000 ancient monuments)
has been entrusted to the Antiquities
Department of Cyprus.
Here are, in chronological order, the successful
submissions for nomination of
Cyprus sites for their inscription on the
World Heritage List:
• 1980 – Archaeological sites of Kato
Paphos (mosaics, Tombs of the Kings,
Crysopolitissa area, Theatre area ) and
Palaepaphos at Kouklia ( Temple of
Aphrodite and Petra tou Romiou).
• 1985 – Nine Byzantine Churches in the
Troodos mountains ( Panagia Asinou,
Nikitari; Ayios Nikolaos tis Stegis, Kakopetria;
Panagia tou Arakos, Lagoudera; Ayios
Ioannis Lampadistis Monastery, Kalopanagiotis;
Panagia tou Moutoulla; Timios
Stavros, Pelendri; Atchangelos Michael,
Pedoulas; Timios Stavros Agiasmati, Platanistasa;
Panagia Podithou, Galata).
•1998 – Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia

Paphos, Petra tou Romiou,Birthplace of Aphrodite.
43

44
Buildings clustered together in the Neolithic settlement of Chirokoitia
• 2002 – Church of Metamorphosis of
Sotiros, Palaichori was added to the Troodos
Churches List.
For a country the size of Cyprus it is a distinction
to have so many properties inscribed
on the World Heritage List and most significant
is the fact that they represent completely
different phases in the evolution of
the island’s history – a testimony to the
breadth and diversity of its heritage.
Choirokoitia – neolithic settlement located
in the Maroni valley, provides ample
evidence for the initial establishment of
stable communities in Cyprus. The homes
were circular in shape built of pisé, mud
bricks and stones with a flat thatched roof.
An opening in the wall, quite frequently
with a paved threshold, formed the entrance
to the house, some of which had openings
for ventilation and light. Vessels characteristic
of the aceramic period were made
of diabase, a hard stone and indicate great
skill in stone-cutting. Human figures were
carved on stone, depicted on murals or
shaped into figurines made of picrolite –
a green stone from the Kourri river.
Palaepaphos – site inhabited
since the Chalcholotic
period;
acquires predominance
in the 12th
century BC when
the Mycenaean
Greeks settled in
Temple of Aphrodite
on a coin of the Emperor
Vespasian, 75-6 AD

Cyprus. The first temple of Aphrodite,
the most important of all Sanctuaries all
over the ancient world mentioned by Homer
and other Greek and Latin authors is
dated to this period. The huge ashlars blocks
of local limestone in the true megalithic
Cyclopean order testify the magnificence
of the original temple. The shrine had a
peribolos wall enclosing a tripartite cella
that housed a conical baetyl (sacred stone)
in the centre symbolizing the power of the
great goddess.The temple survived the collapse
of the Mycenaean world and flourished
in the Archaic-Classical times (7th-
4th centuries BC).
Nea Paphos – established towards the end
of the 4ty century BC by
Nikokles, the last King of
Palaepaphos.The city grew
rapidly in importance becoming
the capital of the island
by the 2nd century BC until
the annexation of Cyprus by
Rome in 58BC. The monumental
underground tombs
in atrium form known as
"Tombs of the Kings" suggest
the wealth and sophistication of
Hellenistic Paphos. The town was
embellished during the Roman period
with many public buildings, an Agora,
an Odeon and a theatre. Mosaic floors in
private houses are of unique quality and
value due to the great variety of their
subjects and their excellent workmanship.
Cradle of the Christianity, Nea Paphos saw
the erection of many basilicas and Byzantine
churches.
Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis, Kakopetria–
built and decorated with wall painting in
the 11th century. In the 12th century a
The Rape of Ganymede. Mosaic from the House of
Dionysus, Nea Paphos
narthex is added and painted. Important
redecoration of the church dates
from the 13th-15th centuries.
Monastery of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis,
Kalopanagiotis – built and decorated
with painting in the 11th and 12th centuries. Additional -
13th century frescoes
reflect the contact of
the Italian Renaissance
with the art of
Byzantium.
Panagia Phorviotissa,
Asinou – monastic
church built in the
12th century. The frescoes
dated 1105-6 are
of an exceptional quality
of the Comnenian style. A
second layer of paintings in
1332-3 bears strong Frankish influence.
Panagia tou Arakos, Lagoudera – monastic
church built at the end of the 12th century
and decorated with painting in 1192.
45

46
The frescoes in late Comnenian style constitute
the most complete set of frescoes
of the mid-Byzantine period.
Panagia at Moutoullas – erected and decorated
in 1280 with paintings reflecting
the monumental art of the Crusaders, of
which almost nothing survives elsewhere.
Church of Archangelos Michael, Pedhoulas
– built and painted in 1474 in a
style developing a synthesis of Byzantine
art incorporating some elements of
western art. But, irrespective of influences,
the artist remained a naïve painter true
to his tradition.
Church of Timios Stavros, Pelendri – preseves
paintings of the original decoration
of the 12th century building. The 14th century building and painting display local
and western features and to a certain degree
The Hospitality of Abraham (above ), Moses Receiving the Ten Commandements, the Enthroned Virgin with
Child, Moses before the Burning Bush. Around 1500. Agios Ioannis Lampadistis Monastery

The Virgin Arakiotissa. Panagia tou Arakos, south wall, 1192
the revived art of Paleologan Constantinople.
Panagia Podhitou, Galata – wall paintings
dated 1502 are highly influenced by
the paintings of the Renaissance, with vivid
colours and three – dimensional rendering.
Timios Stavros Ayiasmati, Platanistassa –
built in the 15th century and painted in
1495 by Philip Goul, a Hellenized Syrian
Orthodox who relied on eclectic drawing
fom Byzantine art, western painting
and local tradition. The biblical scenes
recall manuscript miniatures.
Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour,
Palaichori – built at the beginning
of the 16th century and decorated in the
2nd or 3rd decade of the same century. Constitutes
one of the most accomplished series
of wall paintings of the post-Byzantine
period in Cyprus, the artist being an
outstanding representative of the Cypriot
School.
In 1980, only five years after the ratification
of the UNESCO Convention concerning
the Protection of the World Cultural
and Natural Heritage, Cyprus became
a member of the World Heritage Committee.
It remained a member until
1987 and it was reelected in 1991 until
1997. In addition, the then Permanent
Delegate of the Republic of Cyprus to
UNESCO, Ambassador C. Leventis, was
elected Chairman of the 9th Session of
the General Assembly of the World Heritage
Convention in 1993.
Source: Department of Antiquities
47

48
The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated
with the Pierides Museum of Contemporary
Art, the Cultural Services of the
Ministry of Education and Cultural and the
Cultural Centre of the Laiki Group of
Companies have organised "Accidental Meetings",
a large-scale exhibition which seeks to
explore the contemporary art scene of Cyprus
and observe how it evolved since 1974 to
the present day. Its objective is to bring about
"accidental meetings" among the Greek and
Turkish Cypriot artists which would spark off
a fruitful dialogue of creativity.
Yiannis Toumazis, Director of the Nicosia
Municipal Arts Centre and the Pierides Foun-
Accidental Meetings
dation, curated the exhibition which opened
on May 6 and will continue until 31 July.
In the introduction to the exhibition catalogue,
Yiannis Toumazis is trying to find the
criteria and data according to which he could
attempt a reading or even a deciphering of the
Cypriot visual arts scene.
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition aspires
to present an as-far-as-possible truer picture
of today’s reality, a reality shaped by the 30year
development of a major problem which
has determined the actions, reactions and
behaviours of an entire generation.
The development of Cypriot art from 1960
Klitsa Antoniou, Episodes of Domestic Nature, 2005. Ceramic tiles, seaweeds, mirror, slide projection,
photographs

(the year of establishment of the Republic
of Cyprus) to 1974 (the year of the Turkish
invasion), formed the main object of examination
of the exhibition held by the Nicosia
Municipal Arts Centre, Collaboration: Pierides
Gallery, under the title "1960-1974: Young
Cypriot Artists at the Dawn of the Republic".
The main characteristic of this first period
was the air of the neophyte as brought to
the island by the first Cypriot artists to have
studied in major art centres abroad (mainly
London), as well as the fresh look provided
by modernism and abstraction, which pulled
Cyprus away from a long Byzantine, folkloric
and ethnographic tradition.
1974 was a turning-point for Cypriot artists,
both Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The tragic
events caused great unrest, both external
and existential. A long time was needed in
order for an internal calm to prevail, an element
necessary for any intellectual quest. The
memories and the inevitable trauma inescapably
pushed an entire generation of young adults
to leave the island and pursue studies in Art
abroad. At this juncture, it may well be worth
pondering for a moment that for years, Cyprus
did not possess a university. Despite the fact
that Cyprus enjoys one of the comparatively
higher proportions of tertiary education
graduates in the world, the establishment of
the University of Cyprus was only made possible
a mere fifteen years ago. I believe that
this fact had a drastic, if not dramatic influence
on the shaping of our modern identity.
On the one hand, the return to Cyprus of
graduates from the four corners of the earth
may well have brought to the country a charming
polyphony and a wealth of ideas, systems
and perceptions, yet on the other, the lack
Yiorgos Kipris, Muscle Exercises. Crystal. Collection
of State Gallery of Contemporary Cypriot Art
Athina Antoniadou, Untitled from the series Between
Conversations, 2004, mixed media
49

50
Rinos Stefani, Targets, installation, mixed media,
29 figures
of a central high-standard intellectual establishment
in my opinion prevented the creation
of a purely Cypriot tradition and conscience.
While the Greek Cypriots entered the 20th
Century in continuation of a rich tradition of
Byzantine and folk art, it wasn’t until much
later that the Turkish Cypriots began dealing
seriously with the matter, and this mainly
after the reforms instituted by Kemal Ataturk.
Whatever the case, the overriding fact is that
Maria Perendou, Kniphofia, triptych, oil on canvas, 2004 – 2005
Mary Plant, The Chosen Shell, oil,
graphite, gold leaf, 1993
the absence of a Fine Arts School in Cyprus
deeply influenced the shaping of today’s artistic
landscape.
It is also a fact that the 30-year lack of communication
between Greek and Turkish Cypriots
does not permit us to speak of a common
development and common parameters.
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition attempts
to trace the developments in both the Greek
Cypriot and the contemporary Turkish Cypriot
Visual Arts reality, in appreciation always

Stass Paraskos, Prisoner of Conscience, mixed media,
2005
of the great difficulty of the endeavour.
The exhibition aspires to form a meetingplatform
for a large number of the island’s
significant artists, older but most importantly
younger, who, in these last thirty years, have
succeeded, through their works, in creating
a multifaceted mosaic which, in my opinion,
constitutes our contemporary artistic
identity.
The fact that we can, today, select a pleiad
of worthy artists (always bearing in mind
the total population of the island) who successfully
manage to maintain the dynamic
existing at present in Cyprus, is, in itself, a
notable and praiseworthy feat. One could liken
"Accidental Meetings" with the paths followed
by the electrons and neutrons in an atom’s
core. Collisions, fusions, the release of ener-
gy, creation, genesis of matter. It was in some
such way that the situation developed. Cyprus
was the meeting- and gathering-place for so
many different schools and systems of throught,
a field in which many and different trends
developed and continue to do so. The lack
of a Fine Arts School, or even a Museum of
Modern and Contemporary Art, contributed
to the somewhat anarchical and without specific-orientation
development of our artistic
reality. For this reason, our artists functioned
more like autophotous units, by and
large avoiding their incorporation into group
processes of creation.
The exhibition constitutes a challenge to
our artists for them and them alone to
determine the artistic mien of present-day
Cyprus at a time when our country is acquiring
greater and greater geo-political significance
and interest. The initial desire was
that the exhibition would lead to collaborations
between older and younger artists, and
thus create new dynamic relationships. In some
Christos Polydorou, "18". Acrylic on canvas.
Wood and metal
51

52
Polis Peslikas, Incidents with a Cowboy Haircut, 2005, oil on canvass. Courtesy: Archimede Staffolini Gallery
cases this was achieved, in others these relationships
are more esoteric and "underground".
Nicosia is preparing to host, in 2006, the Manifesta,
the European Biennale of Contemporary
Art, which may be the third most important
after those of Venice and Cassel. This
on its own is an event of major significance
for our country but especially for our artists,
our art curators and, in general, all those
involved in the process of cultural production.
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition is
essentially the first chance to self-analyse and
self-delineate modern Cypriot Art, and form
a meeting-point for trends and perceptions
and ideas and mentalities, but mainly a space
where energy can be released and new matter
created.
It is a fact that in the thirty years which have
elapsed since 1974, Cypriot artists have managed,
through many adversities, to articulate
their own distinctive utterances.
For many, these utterances did not follow the
paths that some would have liked. It is quite
often the case that the realisation of a problem
such as the Cyprus issue is expressed as
a purely internal process. The continued existence
of the Green Line, the lack of a solution
and the insurmountable problems which still
exist are all elements which have influenced
us significantly.
One could say that it is almost the fashion
in this day and age for artists to observe and
comment on socio-political and other phenomena
of our times, and set themselves at
the frontline of "difficult" problems and in
the vanguard of critical regions.

On the other hand, one should appreciate
in Cypriot Art of recent years the fact that it
tried to create a contemporary Cypriot face,
searching desperately (and often extrovertly)
in an attempt to determine itself.
We should also note that the, albeit late-inmaturing,
interest of the international community
(artistic and otherwise) in the Green
Line and the existing division is clearly and
on its own a very positive element.
It is, however, one thing to observe a problem
and another to live it, especially for such a long
time. The difference is huge. I believe that this
in itself explains the need of our artists, through
all these years, to turn to the outside world,
essentially attempting to "exorcise" the sensed
evil and feel (even if this in essence does not
stand) that they belong to a normally-developing
environment and that they form part
of a wider international milleu. For this rea-
Simge Uyger, untitled, installation, mixed media, 2004
son, I would say to those who through documentary-like
practices search for the concerns
of our creators, to examine with greater
attention the entire and complex matrix which
took shape through all these years.
One thing is certain: the overpowering fact is
that today, Cyprus stands at an ideological
crossroads which will determine its future in
the years to come. It is for this reason that
introspection and an analysis of its hitherto
Visual Arts course is significant.
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition seeks
to record the today which derives from our
modern history, aiming at constituting a nodal
point for realization and re-delineation. And,
of course, look to the future, which, we hope,
our dynamic and highly-promising new generation
of artists will substantively determine.
Source: Yiannis Toumazis, Accidental Meetings
(Exibition catalogue).
53

54
The 8th European Dance Festival, hosted
at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol, was a
milestone in the evolution of the event since
the recent enlargement of the European
family was reflected in the increasing number
of participating countries: not only was
Cyprus participating as a full member in its
own right, but also Spain, Sweden, Poland,
Estonia and Malta were represented for the
first time. The event was organised under
the auspices of the European Commission
Representation in Cyprus and was coordinated
by the Cultural Services of the Ministry
of Education and Culture.
For a whole month, between May 7 and
June 11, 2005 the Rialto Theatre offered
a panorama of dance, music, movement and
aesthetic expression from eleven groups,
with choreography that reflects the Euro-
European Dance Festival
pean prevailing trends. This prestigious
event which has scored mounting success
over the year has created new bridges of
communication with the international scene
of contemporary dance.
The dance companies featuring during the
Festival were:
Italy – Compania Danza Travirovesce
performed "Appuntamenti in Nero" an
exploration of anguish, crime and noir.
Malta – Contact Dance Company with
"Poetry in Motion" focusing on the drama
and liveliness of poetry and "Are You Right,
Am I Wrong" about the cycle of friendship
stages.
France: La Compagnie Apotosoma with
the work "Use" choreographed by Greek-
Frenchman Antonis Phoniadakis who returns

to his Cretan roots.
Austria: Tanzatelier Wien performed
"Land Body Scope" a work focused on
the combination of music, dance, images
and light.
Sweden: Company Kudo with the production
"Lizard" choreographed" by Statoshi
Kudo.
Poland: Ensemble Plastique Animée performed
"O Widowisku" using a music mosaic
to create a balance between theatre, movement
and light.
Estonia: Fine 5 Tantsuteater with "24
Hours" choreographed by Tommi Kitti.
Germany: cie. toula limnaios group with
"Double Sens" featured another Greek link.
Spain: Cienfuegos U6 – DT performed
"Pargatorio" choreographed by Yoshia Cienfuegos.
Greece: Iros Angelos Dance Theatre with
an excerpt from Christopher Marlone’ s
"Edward II".
The Cyprus participation as in previous
years was the winner of the 5th Dance Platform
event. This year’s winner was Natasa
Georgiou’ s group InterAct Dance Theatre
with "An Angel at my Table" which was
unanimously selected by eight judges from
Cyprus and abroad. On graduating from
UK’s Laine Theatre Arts, Natasa Georgiou
founded Omada Pente from which she eventually
resigned forming InterAct two
years ago. With her work "Babble On", she
also won second prize at the 4th Dance Platform
in 2004.
"An Angel at my Table", although inspired
by Cypriot women, presents a contemporary
view on the universal idea of waiting,
55

56
expecting, anticipating. Impressive stage
props: large, clunky tables burden the stage
which are excellently used symbolically by
three women as a metaphor for their illusion,
their vain anticipation as they wait for
their partner to join them for dinner. There
is condensed drama in this piece which is
poignantly sensitive and packed with emotions.
The European Dance Festival was an excellent
opportunity to explore and create innovative
work by using outside mainstream
dance traditions and to share the diversity
of dance through the varied channels of different
forms of culture. As Adriaan van
der Meer, Head of the European Commission
Representation in Cyprus, put it in
his opening message, the EU aims to continue
to encourage cultural exchanges, the
dissemination of art and culture, inter-cultural
dialogue and knowledge of the history
and cultural heritage of Europe.
Inter Act Dance
Theatre:
An Angel at my
Table,
winner of the
5th Dance
Platform

Contemporary Classical Music Competition
"United in diversity" is the ideology promoted
by the European Union in whatever concerns
matters of culture. And naturally music,
as a universal means of communication precisely
because of its immediacy, is in a position
to contribute to the promotion of the
above principle through the development of
the intercultural dialogue and of communication
between peoples, thus contributing
to international peace and stability. With
the challenges of the times in mind, our
contemporary music creation acquires special
importance.
The third competition for the composition
of a work of contemporary classical music is
an initiative by the Cultural Services of the
Ministry of Education and Culture which has
the aim of promoting and furthering the writing
of contemporary music.
The prizes were awarded on the recommendations
of the Judging Committee appointed
by the Ministry of Education and Culture
and composed of:
Elena Theodoulou-Charalambous, President
(without the right to vote)
Yiorgos Koumentakis
Miltos Loyiadis
Maciej Zoltowski
There were 16 entries.
The prizes were awarded as follows:
1st Prize: for the work "Interaction" by Vassos
Nicolaou.
2nd Prize: For the work "Perception" by Charalambos
Sophocleous.
Ms Eleni Nikita, Director of the Cultural Services
of the Ministry of Education and Culture addressing
the award ceremony
1st Prize: Vassos Nicolaou
57

58
2nd Prize: Charalambos Sophocleous
3rd Prize: Maria Andreou
Honourable Mention: Costas Papageorgiou
3rd Prize (shared): for the work "Metaptoseis"("Transitions")
by Maria Andreou and
for the work "Music for Five" by Phanos
Dymiotis.
Grounds for the awards
1st Prize: Vassos Nicolaou for his work "Interaction":
This is a work with clear exposition of ideas,
which is structured in the framework of a firm
musical form. The work has rich harmonic
and rhythmic fabric. The finale is extremely
interesting. At the same time the composer
appears to have the special ability of correctly
"hearing" his material, which develops in
a very balanced way.
The composer assimilates contemporary trends
and influences and in a personal way dares
with very fine balances to create a unique
musical world. The work shows spontaneous
inspiration which appears to be the product
of a deeper need for musical expression.
2nd Prize: Charalambos Sophocleous for
his work "Perception":
This is a well-written work, correctly structured
from the harmonic aspect. It presents a
very beautiful and clever juxtaposition of the
two parts, with the second part showing clear
influences and impact from musical movements
of the jazz space. There is a deliberate
limitation in the range of chromatic sound,
which stylistically leads to an imaginative sense
of rhythm. It is a work with humour and with
clarity of intention and one which assimilates
in a functional and original way all its musical
influences.
3rd Prize (shared): Phanos Dymiotis for his
work "Music for Five" and Maria Andreou
for her work "Metaptoseis" ("Transitions").
Phanos Dymiotis for his work "Music
for Five":

Members of the Cyprus State Orchestra performing works which were awarded prizes
The work reveals an experienced composer.
While the writing moves within conventional
frameworks, the great sensitivity of the
composer unfolds, giving a work which will
sound very good in performance. In this work
one sees a composer with good acoustic perception
and rhythmic eloquence.
Maria Andreou for her work "Metaptoseis"
("Transitions"):
The composer writes very engagingly with
clear influences from Kurtag, which she assimilates
in a very creative way. She is a composer
with talent and sensitivity. There is clear
orientation in relation to the style. The
work seemingly moves in the form of the
miniature, which eventually is reshaped and
develops into an homogeneous form of exceptional
interest.
The committee also singled out the work
"Rhapsody" by Nikos Troullos and the work
"String Quartet" by Costas Papageorgiou, and
recommended that they should receive honourable
mention.
Honourable Mention: Nikos Troullos for
his work "Rhapsody".
Here is a creator whose musical writing is characterised
by sincerity in expression. The work
stands out for its impressive finale, which indicates
imagination and musical perception.
Honourable Mention: Costas Papageorgiou
for his work "String Quartet".
This is a work of very great interest and its
creator appears to have very good knowledge
of the Orchestra.
The committee recommended that these two
works be included in the works to be performed
at the award ceremony and recorded
on CD for the purposes of projecting and promoting
the work of the prizewinners.
59

60
International Xperimental Film Festival
For the fourth year running the Xperimental
Film Festival has continued coordinating
creators of all kinds, who have chosen to express
themselves through film. The festival,
organised by the Pantheon Cultural Association
and sponsored by the Cultural Services
of the Ministry of Education and Culture, was
hosted at the Pantheon Cultural Association.
President of the Pantheon Cultural Association,
Petros Lapithis launching the festival,
stressed the fact that: "the character of any
form of experimentation in art releases an honest
and playful visual expression. The participants
of the Xperimental festival have each
developed their own unique style of filming,
producing an atmospheric result either technically,
visually or through a given concept.
You can never tell how people will react to
these films, but such reactions are necessary
because they make people think, they remind
people that they are alive."
The themes are approached in new and innovative
ways – a far cry from the conventional
approach – something that makes this type
of film very appealing to artists everywhere.
What is more they are attractive to film makers
not only because of their broad possibilities
but also because expenses can be virtually
non existent.
More than 60 films were submitted by artists
around the world out of which only 30
short films were selected. They include films
from the U.S.A, the U.K, France, Japan, Chile,
Greece, Germany, Cyprus and they can last
from 30 seconds to 20 minutes.
There were the seven Cyprus entries:
Lefkios Clerides: "Saw You Drown"
(4.30 min), 2004. The film is about a young
man’s struggle with another self that is
somehow pushing him to make the decisions
he doesn’t want to make.
Minos Papas: "Kalipolis" (16 min),
2004. The artist describes the events that
follow the arrival of a young woman in New
York City for the first time. In her new,
empty apartment, she discovers an audio tape
that takes her on a journey through the city,
through the eyes of a poet preparing to leave
forever. Minos Papas received an Outstand-
“26 Weeks”. Lia Lapithi, 2004, Cyprus "Spoil". Senih Conusoglu Emrah Aslan, 2005,
Cyprus

“Compilation”, Christodoulos Demosthenous, 2004/5,
Cyprus
ing Achievement Award at the 15th Annual
Dusty Film Festival, 2004, for this work.
Lia Lapithi: "26 weeks" (8.18 min), 2004.
The video is a journey through female experiences,
as a means of communication and
shared experiences. Emotions are the least
understood of all the cognitive functions, and
such meanings begin to take on a new interpretation:
"medialization of life", "embryos",
"sterile incubation", "motherhood"
(birth/rebirth/growth/sepatation).
Senih Cavusoglu & Emrah Aslan: "Spoil"
(1.33 min), 2005. What was the real motive
of the American Intervention in Iraq? No
weapons of mass destruction were found. Did
"Berio". Elina Roditou, 2004, Cyprus
this ferocious onslaught really bring "democracy
and humanity?"
Myria Konari & Despina Fysentzou: "The
Bingo Project: Incidental Experince I" (0.5
min), 2005. Contemporary culture tends torwards
an expectation of reward. The society
seeks the chance of winning, The gateway to
a triumphant change of fate.
Elina Roditou: "Berio" (2.17 min),
2004. Based on the last interview the composer
Berio had given, the video depicts through
visuals, the way he wanted the musicians to
use every single part of the instruments to create,
to find music in everything.
Christodoulos Demosthenous: "Compilation"
(9.30 min), 2004/5. A compilation of
five short videos, 3-colours, Eorisis, Hands,
Red and Swing. The experimental film
scene in Cyprus is probably not large, but it
is certainly growing. Petros Lapithis specified
that "The beauty of experimental films lies
within its final result, and its result can best
be described as removing boundaries and limits
within art." He is convinced that experimentation
in all forms of art must be supported
in order to keep the vibe of fresh ideas
and new ways of thinking alive.
“The Bingo Project: Incidental Experience 1". Myria
Konnari Despina Fysentzou, 2005, Cyprus
61

62
The second International Children’s Festival
of Cyprus opened on the 13th May, 2005 in
a full garden at the French Cultural Centre,
with an outdoor projection of the French film
"Les Choristes" by Christophe Barratier 2004.
The festival combines films with education
and opens the door to the world of cinema
with the aim of encouraging children to analyse
and discuss, to distance themselves from emotional
reactions and introduce them to the
history of cinema.
During the two-week festival daily screenings
and workshops were held simultaneously in
both communities on both sides of the Green
Line (Intercollege: Cine-Studio and Arabahmet
Cultural Centre) for an already selected
group of children from seven primary and secondary
schools in the south and four in the
north.
This non-profit initiative came from Highgate
School, was operated under the auspices
of the Ministry of Education and Culture,
and was funded through the US Embassy’s
Children’ s Film Festival
Bicommunal Support Programme.
Eva Argyrou, a teacher at Highgate, explained
on behalf of the organisers that films were
selected for their educational aspects, their
portrayal of the relationships between children
and adults and between children and
other children, for non-violence, respect for
other cultures, for the environment and for
their contribution towards broadening young
people’s perspective of the world.
During the weekend of 21-22 May, 2005
bi-communal workshops were held at the Fulbright
Centre and Ledra Palace, where children
of both communities had the opportunity
to create and work together on the
films they had seen during the week: writing
scripts, shooting and editing scenes, and composing
music related to images.
"This is a festival with a difference", the organisers
maintain, "since great emphasis is laid
on the educational value of the films and workshops
help children build a strong and peaceful
relationship between themselves through
this art".
Festival organisers:
French teacher,
Bérangère Blondeau (left)
who teaches Film Studies
at Highgate, Françoise
Arnould (right),
a freelance journalist
and Eva Argyrou (middle),
Deputy Head Teacher,
Highgate School

Greek Ministry of Culture honours
the Leventis Foundation at Olympia
A modest ceremony was held at ancient Olympia
on April 9th at which the Deputy Minister
of Culture, Mr P. Tatoulis, honoured the Leventis
Foundation and the German Archaeological
Institute for their important contribution
to the restoration of a column of the
ancient temple of Olympian Zeus, as well as
the partial restoration of the round temple
known as the Philippeion. The restoration of
this monument is expected to be completed
this coming September. The architect Mr
K. Zambas, who together with the German
architects supervised the restoration o the column,
said that the column of the temple of
Olympian Zeus was the tallest Doric column
in ancient Greece. It is 10.50 metres high and
slightly higher than the columns of the Parthenon
Vassos Karageorgis
The restored Doric pillar of the temple of Zeus at Olympia
and of the temple of Zeus at Nemea.
Mr Tatoulis referred to the multifaceted contribution
of the Leventis Foundation to the
preservation and projection of Greek culture,
not only in Greece and Cyprus but also wherever
it is to be found. He also referred to the
programmes which the Ministry is preparing
for cultural cooperation on an international
level, between Cyprus and Greece. Local political
and religious authorities were present at
the ceremony as well as the Director General
of Antiquities of Greece, Mr Haris Leventis
and Mrs Louiza Leventi and the officers of
the German Archaeological Institute who
came specially from Berlin for the ceremony.
Professor Karageorgis referred to the background
of the undertaking by the Leventis
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64
Drawing: The Philippeion in Olympia, as it will be restored by the end of September 2005
Foundation of the restoration programmes
on the site of ancient Olympia, which are connected
to the contribution of the Foundation
to the cultural Olympiad. Professor Helmut
Kirielais, former President of the German Institute,
referred at length to the work of the
Leventis Foundation, which revives the institution
of the leitourgia (liturgy) which existed
in ancient Greece.
Mr Haris Leventis promised that the Foundation
would continue its interest in projecting
the monuments of Olympia, a site
which has universal symbolism and value. Mr
Leventis said inter alia:
" The A.G. Leventis Foundation has as its primary
aim the preservation and projection of
Greek culture both in Greece and in Cyprus,
and also everywhere else where it appears. Tangible
examples of this culture are the monuments
which stand stubbornly in the face of
time and proclaim their beauty and spirituality,
their ancestral achievements. The proposal
for the partial restoration of monuments
on the sacred site of Olympia was accepted
with keenness and great pride by the Commissioners
of the A.G. Leventis Foundation,
this being too an example of the vision and
the wisdom of my late brother, Constantinos
Leventis.
With the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture
of Greece and of the German Archaeological
Institute, one of the columns of the
temple of Olympian Zeus has been restored
and the partial restoration of the Philippeion
is nearly finished. Without the peace and beauty
of the environment of the archaeological
site being affected, the monuments of Olympia
have acquired a new breath of life and the visitor
can visualise their size more easily.
I warmly thank all those who contributed and
worked with us, who with their knowledge,
sensitivity and thought, brought the work we
undertook to a successful conclusion. It was
our contribution to the projection of Greece
on the occasion of the Olympic Games, but
their work will remain a possession for ever.
Olympia is a symbol of peace and spirituality
for the whole world. We consider therefore
the opportunity given to us to contribute to
its projection a great privilege. We thank the
Minister of Culture for wishing to honour
at this ceremony the contribution of the German
Archaeological Institute and the Leventis
Foundation."

Early Cyprus, Crossroads of the Mediterranean
World scholarship is fortunate indeed to be
enriched by a book on Cypriote archaeology
which for the first time, has been published
in four languages.
In 2002 , the renowned publishing house in
Milan, Electa Mandatori published Professor
Vassos Karageorgis’ book "Cipro. Crovecia del
Mediterraneo orientale, 1600 -500 a.C."
In the same year , the book was circulated in
an English translation :"Early Cyprus, Crossroads
of the Mediterranean" by the Paul Ghetty
Museum in Los Angeles, California and in
Greek: "K‡appleÚÔ˜ ÙÔ Ù·˘ÚÔ‰ÚfiÌÈ Ù˘ AÓ·ÙÔÏÈ΋˜
MÂÛÔÁ›Ԣ 1600-500 apple.X." by the Kapon
publicatioms in Athens. In 2004, the above
mentioned book was published in Spanish by
the Bellaterra publishing house in Barcelona.
The lavishly illustrated edition with a series
of pictures that in themselves give a panoramic
view of the covered period, deals with problems
of Cypriote history and archaeology and
the trade links the island had with neighbouring
civilizations between 1600-500
BC. It tracks the landmarks in the evolution
Golden objects from Palaepaphos - Skales. Cyprus
Geometric II period. Kouklia Museum
of the island, mainly its Hellenization with
the arrival of the Achaeans settlers that
transformed Cyprus into a Greek-speaking
land, and the trade links with the Syro-
Palestinians, Egypt, Anatolia and the Aegean
world.
The Leventis Foundation purchased a number
of copies of the Greek edition and distributed
them gratis to the Universities and
the Archaeological Departments of Greece.
Similarly, copies were offered to the students
of Archaeology at the University of Cyprus
and the University of Athens.The remaining
limited number of copies is available for college
libraries. Persons interested in acquiring
them should contact the "Anastasios G. Leventis
Foundation", 40,Gladstonos Str.,Nicosia
1095, phone: +357-22667706.
65

66
Concept and framework
This year the Biennale of Venice is celebrating
its 110th anniversary. On this occasion,
the current President, Davide Croff commented
that bearing such a heritage, this
threshold, requires a new review of the historic
role of the Biennale, a necessity to reinvent
itself and reaffirm its positions in the
international scene of contemporary art in
the years to come.
The event will feature two exhibitions. The
first entitled The Experience of Art, curated
by Maria de Corral explores the trends from
recent years to the present; the second one,
under the title Always a Little Further, is organised
by Rosa Martinez and looks to the immediate
future and the trends that are prefiguring
the new scenarios.
The Biennale of Venice
12 June – 6 November 2005
The Cypriot participation
Cyprus, a country on the periphery of Europe,
is also undergoing a transitional period on different
levels. As a new member of the extended
European family, it is opening up to new
discourses and new contexts with which to
approach issues of contemporary art and society.
The mobility of artists is increasing, creative
exchange and cooperation between the
two local communities seem to gradually
bypass existing political obstacles.
Cyprus is participating in the Venice Biennale
with two artists: Panayiotis Michael and
Konstantia Sofokleous. They were selected
among 22 different entries, by Spanish curator
Chus Martinez, who was invited to collaborate
with the Ministry of Education and
Culture in the framework of this Year’s national
participation.
Konstantia Sofokleous. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, video animation (still)

Panayiotis Michael. Preparatory installation for the work: I Promise, You Will Love Me Forever
The presentation of Cyprus, under the general
title Gravy Planet was held in the exhibition
spaces of Palazzo Malipiero, on 9 June,
2005 in the presence of the Minister of Education
and Culture, Mr. Pefkios Georgiades,
the Director of the Cultural Services of the
Ministry, Dr. Eleni S. Nikita and the Cyprus
Commissioner, Ms. Louli Michaelidou.
The two artists’ works for the pavilion comprise
drawings on paper, wall interventions
and animations. Although the exhibition is
based on two individual presentations, the
project has a shared aim: to investigate mechanisms
that allow us to locate our universe
of private worries within the public sphere.
By using an intimately personal language
to describe and determine their own subjective
universe, they are embarking on a
challenging journey to make sense of the
global environment, to define their own Gravy
Planet, to create a space where new values
acquire form.
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and a Popular
Children’s Poem are the two animated pieces
on which Konstantia Sofokleous’ installation
is based, together with a large series of wall
drawings.
Panayiotis Michael – under the general title
of I Promise, You Will Love me Forever – has
chosen different works on paper and murals
that combine many issues, primarily focusing
on how collective action produces public good.
The artists
Panayiotis Michael was born in Nicosia in
1966. He studied Graphic Arts and Design
67

at the Moscow Academic Art Institute, and
Painting at Queens College, New York. Since
1994 he has presented his work in many solo
and group shows, in his home country and
abroad. He has represented Cyprus in the
Rijeka Biennale of Croatia (1998) and the
20th Alexandria Biennale in Egypt (1999),
where he was awarded the Jury Prize. Michael
is co-founder of Artrageous, (www.artrageousgroup.com),
an artist group created in
2004 with the purpose of creating a socialpolitical
manifestation that focuses on the role
of the artist as an agent of public awareness
within a contemporary art context. For the
past few years, he lives and works in Nicosia.
In Venice, the artist will be showing a series
of drawing collages.
Konstantia Sofokleous was born in Limassol
in 1974. She studied Graphic Design at the
Technological Education Institute of Athens
and Internet Technologies at New York University.
This year she is to conclude her Master’s
Degree in Computer Animation at the University
of Westminster, London. During the past
few years she has participated in various European
and international programmes for young
artists. Since 1997 she has been working in
the field of Graphic Design and Web and
Multimedia Development. In Venice, Sofocleous
will present two animation movies, traditional
and experimental, as well as drawings
and storyboards created during the
production phase
A 96-page publication – catalogue by Revolver
Verlag containing articles signed by Chus
Martinez, Lars Bong Larsen and Sarah Lowndes
is being distributed at the exhibition hall.
Panayiotis Michael. Detail from the work: I Promise,
You Will Love Me Forever
Konstantia Sofokleous
Konstantia Sofokleous. Popular Children’s Poem,
video animation.(Drawings)
69

70
Old newspapers and magazines are very interesting
and always give me great pleasure when
they happen to come into my hands. Through
such publications, people who lived their life
in times gone by come to life and I try to
imagine myself, how it would have been if
I had lived in the same period. Announcements,
news, stories, other images, other eras.
Some things appear incredible to me, strange,
and others so lovely and enviable! I live for
a little in those years when my father and
grandfather were still very young or unborn,
when time went by at a different pace, slowly
and monotonously to us. My mind cannot
grasp many events, they are completely
incomprehensible. A quiet world without
cars, without radio, without television, without
the internet.
It had never occurred to me, however, that it
was possible I should come across a piece of
news that I recognised as untrue. I had
heard the story at first hand and it was different.
At first I had not realised it, but gradually,
with the passing of time, I set down
bit by bit the findings of my memory and the
information I got from older people and in
The Dragoman’s Daughter
Nicos Nicolaou-Hadjimichael
Nicos Nicolaou Hadjimichael was born at Vasili,
Cyprus in 1948. He studied Mathematics at
the University of Athens. He published essays
and short stories in Greek and Cypriot magazines.
He had two one-man painting exhibitions
and participated in several group exhibitions.
He was awarded the State Prize for Literature
(Short Story) for “The Dragoman’s
Daughter”, published in 2003. He lives and
works in Nicosia.
the end I managed to complete the real story.
I could not believe that the report in
Neon Kition 10/22 October 1883 – 10 th October
by the old calendar, 22 nd by the new – did
not give the true version of the facts but had
distorted them. Here is the report:
"Last week there was nearly an unpleasant incident
in the village Vassilika over a Christian
woman who loved an Ottoman and after a
few days abandoned him. The Ottoman, taking
the insult badly, hired to help him eighteen coreligionists,
who went armed at night to the
woman’s village, to abduct her by force in the
dark. But the Christians, learning of what was
afoot in time, rang the church bell and immediately
quite a number came running from the
surrounding villages and obliged the Turks to go
away humiliated, leaving the beautiful Eleni in
her father’s house."
How could I ever imagine that the beautiful
Eleni of the report of 1883 had lived exactly
opposite my house and I had seen her nearly
every day. I used to take her a little food which
my mother put on a plate. The plate - with a
second, smaller one to cover it - was always
wrapped in a napkin tied at the corners.

First the two diagonal corners of the napkin
in a tight, double knot and then the other two,
tied across more loosely, but again in a double
knot.
How could I imagine that the beautiful Eleni
was the hundred year old Eleni who would sit
all day on her stool, seeking a little conversation
with passers-by or, more often, talking to
and telling off her cats.
When she saw me nearby, she would stand in
the middle of the doorway and call me. She
beckoned me to come close. For me, of course,
playing was more important but she knew
some tricks. She immediately embarked upon
a story, and I liked stories. As soon as she
was sure that I would keep her company for
a while, she would go limping to the corner,
tapping her stick on the marble, and opened
a little door. She never let anyone see what was
in the dark, little room. She took care that no
cat went in and as she entered she turned
her head to see if anyone was following her
and closed the door. She always came out,
however, holding an apple or soutzoukos*
or a few hazelnuts or almonds.
She commented on everything and especially
the women who wore such short skirts.
"Aaah!" she went, "These women of today!
… God will punish them! Look! They should
make their skirts down to here," and she pointed
to her long white drawers, with elastic at
the bottom of the legs, that covered her ankle.
"A woman’s anklebone should not be visible."
And she would make a movement with her
hand as if to say "Modern women …" or "Who
listens to me now!"
"When I was young, there was no girl more
beautiful than me. To save me from the Turks
* A sweetmeat made from grape juice and nuts.
they took me to Trikomo, to the Dragoman’s
house. I stayed there a long time. Do
you know where Trikomo is? You don’t. It’s a
long way from the village. I went on foot with
my father. He knew the way but we went by
another route so they wouldn’t see us. We
arrived at daybreak."
The story stopped at the most critical moment.
There were many tasks to be done in the village
and mother or father always called me
and the story was left in the middle.
The next time the story started at some other
part. It didn’t matter. What mattered was
that someone was listening to her and punctuating
the unending hours of her loneliness.
"I was tall, strong, full of life and slender. I
put the pitcher on my head, full of water from
the spring, and carried it home without touching
it with my hand, without it falling. No
other girl in the village could do that, only
me. Do you know where the village spring is,
son? Have you ever been? You don’t know!
Come, I’ll show you."
And she would get up without waiting for an
answer, limping, with he stick tapping on the
marble, and I would follow her patiently. Every
two or three steps she turned her head to make
sure I was following. "Come, come and I’ll
show you where the spring is." She went a little
to the right of the oven and stopped.
"Do you see that eucalyptus? The carob trees?
That old poplar? Under that is the spring. You
go one day and tell me if the water is still flowing.
How can it have water now, son! They
tell me our spring has dried up. But then it
was perennial." And she made a circle with
her hands to show how much water had flowed.
"Off with you, you naughty hen. Go and
eat some corn so you lay me an egg!" and
she chased the hen off with her stick. "Our
spring had a lot of water, my dear, but now?
71

72
You should have heard the birds! Like this!
…" and, first putting the stick under her arm,
she tapped the wrinkled tips of her fingers
together, "tens of them. They came to drink
the cool water. It was there the Turk saw me.
I was very beautiful, son. His horse neighed
and I noticed him. He tied his horse under
the eucalyptus and came towards me with
great strides. I wasn’t afraid of him. He came
up to me and tried to get his hands on me but
I got away from him. I was seventeen, like a
wild goat. He couldn’t catch me. But I left the
pitcher there."
She stopped and looked at me, as if wondering
whether she should be telling these stories
to a child. "Ah, son, it’s getting dark." And
she began to call "Cluck, cluck, cluck" to
her hens to get them into the henhouse. She
just had time to give me two eggs. I gave them
to my mother saying "Cluck, cluck, cluck"
and she smiled. "You’ve been listening to your
story again today I see!"
Two or three days later the same story.
"Where did the Turk go, Grandma?"
"What Turk, son?" She talked to me about
other things and I tried to get to the bottom
of her stories.
"Ah! I loved Demetros. He was a very tall
young man. I barely came up to his shoulder.
He worked on his father’s land but he knew
another craft as well. He made everything you
see here: the wardrobe, the bed, the cupboards,
the doors … I haven’t given his tools to anyone.
When I die, whoever wants them can
have them. As long as I live, they’ll remain just
as he left them. It’s time I went to find him.
It’s twenty years since he left me. I’ve had
enough of being on my own. I’m tired. I can’t
walk easily any more. When I’m ill, I sit and
cry on my own all night and nobody hears
me. I’ve only got these cats. Last night one
of them, that black one, brought me a snake
this big and I was scared. She held it and played
with it till she killed it."
"Grandma, where did the Turk go?"
"I told Demetros, son, and he looked at me
for along time and then he took me in his arms
and his eyes filled at the thought I might have
been harmed. Demetros worked his father’s
fields, we weren’t to get married yet, and he
sent a message to my father that he would take
me into the fields as well for a time. The Turk
wanted me, however, and they saw him going
round the village. One day he caught me again
at the spring. Do you know where the
spring is, son, or shall I show you? But I was
not his due. I threw the clasp-knife at him and
scared him. I ran home. The village heard
about it and everyone was in a ferment. I loved
Demetros. You see this mirror? He carved it,
day and night, day and night until he finished
it. He made a vase of roses and over the roses
some birds singing and vine leaves all around.
He made the roses red and the birds blue. He
ordered the glass from the town. No one
else had such a mirror. He made it for me. He
loved me very much and never said "No" to
me. "I made it for you, sweetheart, for when
you comb your hair, so you’ll always be beautiful."
That’s what he used to say. "For the
birds to sing while you’re combing your hair
and make you always happy and for you to
be as fresh as the roses." God bless him! I haven’t
got a picture of him to look at but it doesn’t
matter. I’ve got him in my mind."
"What became of the Turk, Grandma?"
"It was a night, son, I shall never forget as long
as I live. They locked me up in the inner room
but I found a way to see out. The villagers saw
them coming in the distance holding torches
and they rang the church bell. I could see
Demetros, who was anxious and pacing up

and down like a wild animal in a cage, and I
wanted to get him and go far away. I didn’t
want anything to happen to him because of
me. For when you’re in love, you’re equal to
facing a thousand, not the eighteen who came
that night! As soon as the village bell rang out,
the bell of Ay’ Demetris could be heard as well.
People gathered from three villages and
waited for them. When the Turks were about
two hundred yards away they urged on their
horses to charge at the people, thinking that
they would frighten them and scatter them.
They fired a couple of pistol shots and shouted
fiercely in Turkish, but we didn’t understand
what they meant. But the people not
only didn’t go, they began shouting at them,
that they should be ashamed of themselves
and go away. Demetros insulted the Turk, who
was on his white horse, and told him that if
he had any guts at all, he would throw down
his weapon and dismount. The Turk rode two
or three times round Demetros, as if he were
sizing him up, but he didn’t have the courage
to dismount. There were a lot of people and
the Turks lost their nerve. I don’t know what
came over them but they shouted out something
in Turkish again and vanished. Someone
who knew Turkish said they would come
back. I saw Demetros give a sigh of relief
and he lifted up his arms and gave thanks to
God. He crossed himself three times. He
was a brave fellow and his soul told him so. If
the Turk had dared to dismount , he would
have strangled him. He wouldn’t have escaped.
I waited in the inner room until my father
came after a short while and let me out.
"Get ready quickly. We’re leaving," he said
anxiously. He was holding a lantern and I saw
that he, too, was upset. He told me to take a
few clothes and we would leave. That’s what
we did. He got his leather satchel, put in some
bread and water and we set off. We were silent
on the road. We didn’t talk at all. I kept thinking
of Demetros. Before we set off, we went
behind the house, he embraced me and kissed
me, hugged me and I clung tightly to him and
I didn’t want us to part. But my father was
in a hurry. In the morning we reached the
Dragoman’s house. Do you know where Trikomo
is? It’s a long way from our village. I stayed
at his house for eighteen months. He treated
me like his daughter. In the end, that’s what
they called me in the village – "the Dragoman’s
daughter". However, after eighteen
months he brought back himself in his carriage
and handed me over to my father. I’m
very tired. Help me to lie down on this bed,
son, and you have my blessing."
I left the old woman to her thoughts and headed
for home, deep in thought myself.
Many years have gone by since then. As
soon as my eye fell on the report in the old
newspaper, the bells of Ay’ Demetris and
Ay’ Vassilios rang out. I began adding and subtracting:
seventeen years, which was her age,
plus seventeen up to 1900. Thirty four and
sixty six: one hundred. Dear God, it’s her! Yes,
it’s her!
I collected the fragments of memory and
put them in order. I ought now to write the
real story, as I had heard it at first hand. I
had an obligation. The truth had to be reestablished,
albeit after one hundred and nineteen
years. The beautiful Eleni never loved the
Ottoman. Her only love was her Demetros,
with whom she lived till ’37, and then survived
as his widow for years. She died in ’66
at the age of 100, on July 3rd , 1966. I remember
it very well because the next day I was
called up into the army. Troubles with the
Turks had already begun again.
73

74
Symposium on European Culture
The Minister of Education and Culture,
Mr Pefkios Georgiades, took part with his
counterparts of the 25 member-states of
the European Union in the impressive event,
organised by the French Ministry of Culture
and Communication under the auspices
of the President of France, Jacques
Chirac, in Paris on 2nd and 3rd May 2005.
Cyprus was represented by 18 Greek Cypriot
and Turkish Cypriot artists, while 800
artists and intellectuals of international
repute from the whole of Europe participated,
including the Spanish writer Jorge
Semprun, the French philosopher Michel
Serres, the directors Costas Gavras, Patrice
Chéreau, J-J Annaud, Luc Besson, Arianne
Mnouchkine and Pedro Almodovar, Marianne
Faithfull, Jeanne Moreau, Alain
Finkielkraut, Nana Mouskouri, Cyprien
Katsaris and many others.
The gathering of men and women of the
intellect and the arts of Europe, with the
presence of the French Ministers of Culture,
Mr Renaud Donnadieu de Vabres,
and of European Affairs, Mr Claudie Haigneré,
and the Ministers of Culture of other
European member-states, reflects the
cultural diversity of the Union. "The European
edifice is indisputably in its essence
primarily cultural; the political edifice of
Europe would not be possible without a
common heritage which has its roots in
common history. It is the wish of a group
of peoples and states to share the same cultural
ideals while remaining faithful to
their own identities," confirmed the President
of the Republic of France, Jacques
Chirac.
President Chirac also announced his immediate
plans for the creation of institutions
such as the European Library, the
European Distinction of Cultural Heritage
and an increase in funds to facilitate the
movement of exhibitions between member-states,
giving the assurance that "Europe
will be at the vanguard of the struggle for
the preservation of cultural diversity."
During the conference the "Declaration
for a Charter of Culture for Europe" was
signed. In the Charter, the Ministers or
representatives of the member-states of the
EU express the conviction that "culture
constitutes the foundation stone of the Europe
in which we live" and that " it represents the
primary dimension of the identity of the European
citizen" and commit themselves to
making culture "one of the priorities of the
edifice of Europe."
They also reaffirm the certainty that culture
contributes to the lustre of Europe all
over the world and the respect for cultural
diversity and the traditions of the peoples
of Europe, one of the aims of the EU.
The Charter also reaffirms that the pro-

French President Jacques Chirac with the Minister
of Education and Culture Pefkios Georgiades.
tection of the wealth of the cultural and
linguistic diversity of the European Union
is a fundamental aim of the common Euro-
Minister of Education at Bergen Meeting
The Minister of Education and Culture, Mr
Pefkios Georgiades, recently took part in the
Ministerial Meeting in Bergen, Norway on
the Bologna Process for the creation of the
"European region of Higher Education".
The meeting reviewed the progress of the
Bologna Process for the period (2003-2005)
sine the Berlin Meeting.
The assessment presented at the meeting indicates
that Cyprus has achieved a relatively
high mark and the Minister expressed his
particular satisfaction about this in his comments.
In the course of the discussion, Mr
Georgiades also stressed the importance of
institutions of Higher Education being accountable
to society and the State and the need
to find ways of the more effective exploitation
of available financial resources. The Minister
also supported the position of Greece
with reference to intermediate national qual-
pean action, as the motto of the Union
notes: "United in diversity".
Finally, the conviction is expressed that the
respect for and the active realisation of the
principles which support the policy of the
Union and its member-states which involve
cultural and linguistic consequences "will
be able to make culture a recognised political
programme for Europe. This programme,
which is based on the preservation and promotion
of cultural diversity, will strengthen
the sense of European identity, the consciousness
of every European citizen that he or she belongs
to a community of values, and his or her desire
to build a common future with fellow humanbeings,"
concludes the Declaration.
ifications within the framework of the first
course of studies.
It was also decided to promote the interrelation
of instruction and research, with special
reference to the social dimension and
the mobility of students and academics.
It should be noted that the Bologna Process
is acquiring increasing importance and aims
at the creation of a unified European space of
Higher Education, for comparability and
mutual recognition of qualifications, and that
45 countries already participate in it.
The Minister of Education and Culture headed
a five-member delegation to the meeting,
composed of the Rector of the University of
Cyprus, Mr S. Zenios, the Senior Officer for
Education, Mr Efst. Michael, the Cultural
Attaché at the Permanent Representative of
the Republic to the European Union, Mr Chr.
Valanidou and the General Secretary of POFEN,
Mr S. Lazarou.
75

George Lanitis
1936 - 2005
Well-known columnist, photographer,
filmmaker and cultural figure,
George Lanitis passed away last May,
at the age of 69. His untimely death
was received with a profound sense
of sorrow, for his enthusiasm and
immense creativity in so many fields
represented the generous, the intelligent,
the artistic side of Cyprus.
Born in Famagusta on 23 February,
1936, he went to the Pancyprian
Gymnasium for a classical secondary
education and then studied
Communication and Arts at the
London College of Printing of the
University of London.
During his college years he was
awarded the Associateship of the
Royal Photographic Society and the
Fellowship of the Royal Society of

78
Arts. He also helped his professor, the wellknown
artist Dennis Bowen, establish the
first abstract art and photography gallery
in London, the New Vision Centre of
Marble Arch, where he and other contemporary
photographers exhibited abstract
photographs.
He worked for The Times of Cyprus and the
BBC. He was appointed Chief Cameraman,
Film Director and Head of International
and Public Relations of the Cyprus Broadcasting
Corporation. He edited and published
the Cyprus Diplomatist and for
over 24 years he was the regular diarist of
The Cyprus Weekly.
As the age of seventeen, George Lanitis organised
the first photographic exhibition to be
held by a school in Cyprus at the Pancyprian
Gymnasium. After his studies, back in
his native island he had a one man show of
photogrammes, a novelty at the time, selling
all the pictures exhibited at high, for the first
time, prices.
With his great friend George Pol Georgiou,
one of the important Cypriot painters, he travelled
round the island which they got to know
step by step. Lanitis’ sense of beauty and his
ability to discover and depict it permanently
in photography resulted in the publication of
his first book Nasos tas Aphroditas, (Island of
Aphrodite), a best seller at the time. It was
upon meeting Henri Cartier-Bresson that
Lanitis decided to become a photojournalist
and immortalised with his Leica some of the
most remarkable personalities of the 20th century
(Winston Churchill, General De Gaulle,
Nehru, Mao Tsedong, Indira Ghandi, Pablo
Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Lawrence Olivier
and Queen Elisabeth II).
He attended postgraduate refreshment
studies: Creative Photography under Prof.
Dr. Otto Steiner at the Folkwangschule für

Gestaltung at Essen Werden and read and
learned cinema at the Deutsche Film – und –
Fernsehakademie in West Berlin.
In 1974, with the Turkish invasion he lost his
house at Bellapais and thousands of negatives,
his archives, his collection of photographs, his
The hills of Ayia Anna
equipment, his books, his antiques, practically
a whole life. He gave up photography
professionally for several years as an expression
of his sadness, disappointment and sense
of injustice. He then moved to the Hilton
hotel in Nicosia which was the only place
where you could get a telex connection
overseas. It was during this period that he was
asked to set up a Press and Information Office
at the Cyprus High Commission in London
where he did an excellent job keeping the British
Press so eloquently informed.
In 1978, he organised the first Commonwealth
Exhibition of Photography at Edmonton,
Canada during the Commonwealth Games.
Many heads of state were impressed and paid
high tribute to the cultural manifestation of
Edmonton and, as a result, laid the foundation
of the Commonwealth Arts Organisation.
George Lanitis was unanimously elected
Secretary General. In this capacity he advised
governments and art institutions at the same
79

80
Stavrovouni, from my garden
time organising exhibitions and seminars in
Canada, Africa, India, Australia, Hong
Kong etc. He instigated the Commonwealth
Photography Prize.
Founding the Cyprus Photographic Society,
of which he served as President he succeeded
in putting Cyprus on the international map of
photography. He was honoured with the highest
distinction of Maître de la Fédération Internationale
de l’ Art Photographique (MFIAP).
For his film communication he was awarded
the First Prize for best documentary at the Thessaloniki
Film Festival. For his film on Sinai and
Saint Catherine he was made Chevalier of
the Order of Saint Catherine.
During the last years of his life George Lanitis
was working on his own ideas of movement
and colour within the limitations of still
photography. This work was exhibited in his
own gallery, L’ Artiste Assoiffé in the village
of Psevdas.
In 2004 the President of the Republic of Cyprus
awarded George Lanitis the highest cultural
distinction for his contribution to the Arts. In
a special ceremony at Famagusta Gate Cultural
Centre in Nicosia, the Minister of
Education and Culture, Pefkios Georgiades
presented him the insignia of the Aristeion for
Excellence in Arts and Letters.
An additional evidence of recognition by
the Ministry of Education and Culture for the
significant contribution made by George Lanitis
in the field of Arts was the publication of
the album George Lanitis – 50 Years of Photography
that came out a few days before his
passing.
His numerous friends will remember him as
a bon-viveur, an enthusiastic wine connoisseur,
an avid gardener, a dedicated animal protector
a great story-teller with a unique sense
of humour. He will be dearly missed, as will
his Cyprus Weekly column. The Editorial
Board of Cyprus Today offers its deepest sympathy
to the family.