NICOSIA’s two most historic kiosks will shut down for the first time in their long history as of next week, due to the upcoming Eleftheria Square renovation works.
The “Miltis & Evgenis” and “Hellas “kiosks, set up in 1949 and 1965 respectively, and separated by a mere 50 metres along the Eleftheria Square pavement, have become landmarks in the walled city and have established themselves as popular attractions to visitors.
But with renovation works on the long-anticipated new Eleftheria Square set to start next Monday February 6, the kiosks have been instructed to shut down, reportedly temporarily.
“The municipality informed us that we have until Monday morning to pack up everything and leave” said Nikos Elia, the son of the EOKA fighter Thasos Elia, who first opened the Hellas kiosk in the early 1960s.
Under the new Eleftheria Square renovation plans, the two kiosks will be moved to the moat area, to the east of the square, while an ice-cream shop and a café will also be set up.
“We’ve been promised that we will be given an allocated space, but the rent will go up to €2,000 per month and in the meantime we have nowhere to go,” commented Charalambos Yiangopoulos, the son of Evgeni Yiangopoulos, who was given the kiosk management in 1949 by the then mayor, Themistocles Dervis.
The kiosks, which were the first to operate on a 24-hour basis all year around, are owned by the municipality and are rented out – currently at a reportedly €850 per month – to managers for the day-to-day administration..
Both kiosk managers said that they would not demand any sort of compensation from the municipality, despite expecting to incur tremendous costs from their temporary closure.
Elia said that they had been waiting for the renovation works to start since 2005, and was rather pessimistic about the changes of the project being finished within the proposed two years.
The renovation works, which have been at a stop-start since the discovery of antiquities on site in 2007, will be carried out by Miltiades Developers Company and is expected to cost around €23 million.
The contract for the Hellas kiosk was given to Elia by Archbishop Makarios himself after Independence, as part of the then president’s policy to try and accommodate EOKA fighters after the struggle.
According to Elia, the municipality had suggested other places in the old city where the kiosk could relocate until renovation works were completed but conceded that “no location beats the history and ideal spot that we have now”.
Yiangopoulos, whose son Demetris also works at the kiosk, said that they had been operating at a loss for the past five years and questioned the timing of the works, considering the crisis.
“This is more than just a kiosk. It became the focal point of Nicosia’s centre after the Turks occupied Ermou Street, which was the city’s main merchant road and its history is intertwined with the city’s highs and lows” Yiangopoulos said.
With Eleftheria Square being the main meeting point for people to celebrate national and sport events, Yiangopoulos said that the kiosks had also become a tourist information post for visiting tourists.
“This kiosk is my family legacy. My mother was still pregnant with me when she was working here in 1966, and I remember my grandmother scolding me for running around the kiosk when I was a boy” Elia recalls, who said that the closer the closing day approached, “the harder it is to hold back the tears.”
