A marvel of its time

When it first opened Nicosia’s airport was a miracle of modern architecture that people would visit whether travelling or not. Today it stands empty except for the pigeons, an eerie reminder of what has been lost. ELENI ANTONIOU speaks to a photographer given a rare glimpse of it

Nicosia airport was abandoned during the invasion of 1974. Since then few have had the opportunity to visit the once glamorous building now under UN control in the buffer zone and fewer have been given permission to photograph it. Orestis Lambrou is one of few. After spending a day at the deserted airport, he tells the story of a place frozen in time.

In August last year Orestis, a 27-year old photographer and Goldsmith’s University student, was granted permission to spend a day at the capital’s airport. “I told them I was working on a project,” he says. “I am fascinated by abandoned buildings no matter where they are. The airport in Nicosia just happened to be the most fascinating in Cyprus because of its history. Not many airports in the world were simply abandoned especially ones that did not run their cycle.” NIC, as the airport was known, used to be the principal airport for Cyprus from its initial construction in the 1930s as the Royal Air Force station RAF Nicosia until 1974. At first it acted principally as a military airport. During WWII the airport’s facilities and runway were extended and American bombers used the runway in 1943-44 when returning from the allied bombings of Romanian oil fields. The RAF quit the airfield in 1966 due to limited space brought on by vastly increasing civilian aircraft movements. The purpose-built passenger terminal that stands empty today was completed in 1968 bringing the total of operating years to just six. The airport was, in all senses, brand new.

“It was a marvel of its time,” explains Orestis. “When the passenger terminal was completed people would go just to have coffee there and see the building. It was similar to what people experienced when the Mall in Nicosia was completed, for instance. It was the first modern building in Cyprus.” The airport, which apparently cost two million pounds, an outstanding amount for the time, and was used by over 10 different airlines and included a number of beautiful touches like a balcony where one could watch the planes take off and land and a floating staircase. Another, most notable, feature are the skylights that covered the ceilings in the passenger terminals. “That must have been a first for Cyprus,” says Orestis. “Even after all these years, the architecture is unique and very impressive.”

However, pictures of the deserted airport are eerie. The entire departure room is covered with pigeon excrement; broken glass frames the corridors while advertisements from the time, still hang on the walls. “I like to take souvenirs from the abandoned places I visit,” said Orestis. “But here, there was nothing to take. It seemed that anything that could be unscrewed or moved or was of value was taken. Some say it was looted during the war.” Signs indicating Passport control, Duty Free Shopping and Restrooms are still intact, some untouched by time others weary, torn and rusty. “I can see why people aren’t allowed inside the terminal. It’s a health hazard,” Orestis says. The UN occupies a single room. The rest is locked up, left to the pigeons. Outside an abandoned bullet-ridden aircraft is surrounded by barbed wire. Behind it a flat empty plain; a couple of guardhouses poorly fill the large void.

“Did I feel depressed?” asks Orestis. “No, not at all. I was excited and overwhelmed with feelings of being somewhere I shouldn’t be but in all honesty, I was sad to see this once glamorous piece of architecture broken down. I tried to imagine what it was like and felt that if it was to be cleaned, scrubbed and brushed I would love to go for a coffee.”

NIC
An exhibition of Orestis Lambrou’s photographs of the abandoned Nicosia airport. APOTHEKE gallery, Kleanthis Christofides Street (off Lefkonos), Nicosia. Until July 10. 17:00 to 21:00. For more information call 99-764816

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.