Priest hits back over negligence claim

THE CHURCH yesterday hit back at claims that frescoes in the 100-year-old Limassol cathedral had been left to disintegrate.

Father Andreas, priest at the Ayia Napa church, admitted that the frescoes had collapsed, but blamed this on the October 1996 earthquake. He said the church was pumping £750,000 into renovating the stone church and recreating the wall paintings.

The Co-ordinating Committee of Limassol Cultural Groups had charged that the Ayia Napa frescoes had fallen away in the quake because they had been neglected.

“We had plans to restore the wall paintings, but the earthquake caught us on the hop,” Father Andreas said. “The frescoes had been damaged by leaks from the roof and they crumbled into dust when the earthquake came. Only three survived,” he said.

He said the paintings had, in any case, not been “exceptional” or of any archaeological value.

New frescoes, in the traditional style, would replace the old when an ongoing £400,000 renovation of the stone church had been completed. The Ayia Napa church was completed in 1896.

Father Andreas said the new wall paintings would cost around £350,000.

“It saddens me when people have a go at the Church when we are doing what we can to save the church,” he said.

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