Ledra Street landmark to be torn down for Shacolas car park

By Athena Karsera

NICOSIA’S Ledra street will shortly be losing another traditional characteristic, with the demolition of a building going back to the turn of the century.

The courts recently approved a Nicosia Municipality decision on the sale of the ‘Stoa Stavrinides’, or Stavrinides Archway.

The new owner, the Shacolas Group, plans to tear down the building and build a three tier parking facility in its place across the road from its new Woolworth department store.

One of the two remaining shopkeepers in the building said she had been at the premises for thirty years: “I have nowhere else to go. My business will close down when the building is torn down. This shop has been my life for the last 30 years.”

The shopkeeper, who did not want to be named, said most of the other shopkeepers in the arcade had left a few years ago.

She also noted that the building had once been the home of Eleftherianewspaper, which was established in 1905 and closed down on the first day of the Turkish invasion in 1974.

“Everything in old Nicosia is being lost, it’s becoming just like everywhere else. Nothing special will remain,” the shopkeeper said.

In an announcement issued this week, the Ecological Movement condemned the demolition plan, saying the building was “an important architectural creation,” reflecting a style between neoclassicism and modernism.

The Greens said tearing down the building would “create a serious gap in the study of Cyprus’ modern history.”

The statement went on to accuse the Municipality of ignoring environmental and building requirements in favour of private interests.

Nicosia mayor Lellos Demetriades yesterday said a Municipality official had been appointed to inform the public on the issue at the Town Hall today.

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