NICOSIA’S Phaneromeni Church will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its inauguration on Sunday, with a special service delivered by the Bishops of Famagusta and Paphos.
The event is expected to draw a large crowd of priests, local residents and dignitaries, including members of parliament, Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou and Greek Ambassador to Cyprus Vasilios Papaioannou.
Special guests and several priests will be invited to a special breakfast after the service. Archbishop Chrysostomos will not attend due to prior engagement in Paphos.
To mark the occasion, the church has produced commemorative stamps and postcards for the occasion, which will be presented to visitors on Sunday.
While Sunday’s event celebrates the centenary of the Church’s naming, the building was in fact constructed in 1872 on the site of a silk-weaving nunnery which dated back to the 14th Century.
This nunnery is believed to have been disbanded in the 16th Century and converted into a parish church.
Church committee member Pavlos Bartella said yesterday: “During the Turkish occupation people wanted to turn the church into a mosque. They tried many times but they always failed.”
Bartella said that it was the 19th century Ottoman governor, Cucuk Mehmet, who decided to leave the building in the Orthodox Church’s hands. Mehmet reportedly left a sum of money to the church which was used to buy elaborate candelabra.
This year sees the 100 years since the inauguration of the current structure of the Historic Church of Our Lady Revealed Nicosia.”
According to Bartella, the inauguration took place on Sunday June 5, 1911 after the return of a lost icon, which allegedly appeared in two peoples’ dreams at the same time.
The area has remained an important religious location for locals, but in recent years it has also become a popular meeting point for local youths and, according to some reports, local criminals.
Last month tensions flared between the largely pro-multicultural youth and the right wing nationalist group KEA, when both scheduled simultaneous events at the church.
KEA boss Krinos Makrides referred to the locals’ treatment of the area around Phaneromeni as “ridiculous” claiming the area was not safe to visit because there are so many immigrants and drug dealers.
After police intervention, the nationalists agreed to postpone their scheduled protest march, while the youths cancelled their planned street party.
