Maintenance work complete at Koma tou Yialou church

Maintenance work at the Saint Nicholas church in the Karpas peninsula village of Koma tou Yialou has been completed, bicommunal Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage co-chairman Sotos Ktoris announced on Sunday.

The church dates back to the 15th century and was expanded in 1952.

The maintenance work was carried out by a group of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot conservationists, engineers, and architects, and the project was funded by the European Union and implemented under the supervision of the United Nations Development Programme.

The church is the latest to see its maintenance work be complete, with the Ayios Theodoros church in the Karpas peninsula village of the same name having been completed in the week.

Work at the Saint Charalambos church near the Famagusta district village of Akanthou having been completed just over a month ago.

According to Christian tradition, Saint Charalambos prayed before his execution that God grant that the place where his relics would repose would never suffer famine or disease.

Accordingly, the Akanthou villagers of the past believed that the saint would protect and cure animal diseases, especially those involving cattle.

Local tradition states that the church was built on the site where a farmer’s two daughters died of the plague while they were ploughing a field.

Legend says the plague then spread to the village of Akanthou and then to other Cypriot villages.

It is said that after the plague, the villagers built the church and dedicated it to Saint Charalambos.

In August, Ktoris’ co-chairman Ali Tuncay had announced that conservation work at the mosque in the Larnaca district village of Alaminos is set to begin in the near future.

He explained that the work will be carried out by the same contractor that is working on the mosque in Kalavasos, and that therefore once work is complete in Kalavasos, it will begin in Alaminos.

He added that the work will include maintenance and repairs to the plaster work both inside and outside the building, filling and repairing cracks in the arches and walls, and repairing the wooden doors and window frames.

The imminent beginning of work in Alaminos comes hot on the heels of the finding of painted motifs on the interior walls of the mosque in the Paphos district village of Terra.

The motifs were discovered under the plaster on the walls, with records of the walls having been painted not having previously existed. 

Tuncay said at the time that the motifs “once again reveal how rich a cultural heritage our historical buildings have”.

“Our work symbolises our determination to pass on our historical and cultural values to future generations,” he said.