Two 19th-century churches in Karavas restored

Two historic churches in Karavas, dating back to the early and mid-19th century, have undergone restoration through the cooperation of Greek and Turkish Cypriot specialists, alongside work to restore the cemetery in Kalopsida. The conservation of Ayia Irene and Ayios Georgios of Mezere was carried out by architects and conservators from both communities, with funding from the EU and the Karavas community under the technical supervision of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Sotos Ktoris, Greek Cypriot co-chairman of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, said Aia Irini was one of three parish churches in Karavas and had stood since the early 19th century as part of the town’s history and collective memory. The church was built in 1804 by Protosiyelos Lavrentios and his son Hadjinikolas on the southwestern slopes of the Pentadaktylos mountain range. Its history is also connected to the events of July 1821, when Hadjinikolas was killed during the massacres of prominent Cypriots under Ottoman rule. One of the church’s icons dating from 1766, looted following the 1974 Turkish invasion, was later returned to Cyprus with the assistance of the church. Ayios Georgios of Mezere, in the southeastern part of Karavas, was built in 1854 on the site of an earlier monastery. The monastery’s former abbot, Leontios Hadjiyianis, provided support to Greek naval commander Konstantinos Kanaris during the Greek War of Independence in 1821. Ktoris also referred to the restoration of the Kalopsida cemetery in the Famagusta district, describing such work as an act of respect towards the dead and those who remember them.