Category: Culture

Not far from where my uncle and aunt live, there is a monastery dedicated to Our Lady from Macedon, Panagia Makedonitissa. The monastery has given its name to the suburb. During the 1974 invasion, a Greek military aircraft did not identify itself in time, and was shot down by friendly fire here. The site is […]

Famagusta Gate, the major gate through the formidable Venetian fortifications around the old town. Famagusta Gate is in disarray, and I do not understand why. It should be far enough from the Green Zone for that not to be an issue. Rather less imposing than Famagusta Gate in the city walls, and a lot closer […]

The All-Cyprus High School and its associated Library, both founded 1812. Museum of the Liberation Struggle—or as it is more commonly termed in English, the Cyprus Insurgency. Cyprus went through its nation-building and decolonisation rather late for the European neighbourhood it wishes to be part of, which means it is not as jaded about that […]

The archbishopric of Cyprus, where the “Big Mak” statue used to be, as a threat to pursuing cars, now replaced by a downsized version in marble. Archbishop Makarios’ limos are also parked outside. As with everything else in this precinct, I was struck by how quiet all is, although it was high siesta time on […]

The old Toufexis Mansion, now the cultural centre of Cyprus University. There was something disconcerting about hearing a minimalist piece being rehearsed on piano, here in a district tying its hardest to be a ghost town. There are a lot of Russians in Cyprus nowadays, and they make their presence known on the finger daubed […]

The church of Panagia Chrysaliniotissa, possibly “Our Lady of the Golden Thistles”, 15th century—and as with everything else in this district, not terribly far from the barbed wire of the Green Zone The Church of St Cassian. (Wikipedia: “This church is modern (1854) with many fragments of a more ancient building inserted in its walls.”) […]

The old town of Nicosia, much too close to the Green Zone and mostly abandoned for decades, is a resource the city has been much too slow to modernise and promote. My cousin Foula has recommended Erma [“Ballast”] cafe-cum-bookshop, built in the old grand sandstone style, and it is utterly charming. It is also utterly […]

The mountaintop of Troodos was a religious site long before Makarios chose to be buried here: it is Throni tis Panagias, the Throne of Our Lady, site where the icon of the Virgin Mary was miraculously discovered, which Kykkos Monastery was built around of 1000 years ago. (And yes, as I discussed at length with […]

The actual tomb of Archbishop Makarios is a much simpler affair, if anything even simpler because the guards standing watch had just knocked off for the day. Makarios wanted his tomb here so he could look back at the village he was born in, up in the mountains.