AFTER years of delays, work to restore Apostolos Andreas Monastery is due to commence at the beginning of next month.
Recent visitors to the monastery, at the tip of the Karpas peninsula, have come back with serious concerns about the state of the building, warning that if something is not done soon, it may become too late.
It is more than a year since opponents of a US-funded UNOPS plan to restore the monastery and chapel snubbed the £1.5 million on offer in a dispute over how the restoration should take place.
Had the original work gone ahead as planned two years ago, the restoration would almost have been completed by now. Instead, the monastery has suffered more neglect, combined with a huge upsurge in visitors since the checkpoints opened in April 2003.
Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, in a letter sent to the Sunday Mail, said, “it is unfair to blame the Turkish Cypriot authorities for the delay on the commencement of the project because the authorities have duly co-operated with UNOPS in order to facilitate the monastery’s restoration. Recently, an application has been made to our relevant authority for permission for the experts to commence restoration. This application shall be speedily finalised. We are determined to protect the religious and cultural heritage of our island, regardless of their origin and regardless of any political consideration whatsoever.”
Committee Member for Apostolos Andreas George Christodoulou yesterday welcomed Talat’s comments, saying: “I was very pleased to read the letter and fully agree that political bickering should be put aside in order to preserve this great religious monument. We are currently waiting for Mr Talat to give permission for work to go ahead, which we will receive via the UN. Once permission is given, the first phase of work will start on July 1 and will be completed by August 15 when thousands of pilgrims will flock to the monastery for the religious festival. This initial work will focus on the support structures of the monastery.”
Christodoulou added that, “the second phase will begin in September and will go on until November 30, when it is the festival of the Apostle Andrew. By November 2006, all work should be completed, if everything goes according to plan.”
He said the budget was already in place and that “we are ready”.
The group that will undertake the work is made up of professors from the University of Patras, experts in restoration that have worked on the Sinai monastery in Egypt and the restoration of the Acropolis in Athens. The architects come from the Greek Cypriot side and the work will be done by Turkish Cypriots, Christodoulou said. The team will be headed by Nicos Polidorides.
Apostolos Andreas monastery was built on the spot where the Apostle Andrew is said to have come ashore on his way to Greece in the 1st century AD. For the past 30 years under Turkish occupation it has fallen foul of neglect and the elements. The monastery buildings themselves date from the 19th century and the chapel from the 14th century. The last time work was carried out on the monastery was in 1966, and that involved merely adding a series of upper rooms.
