Invaluable cultural heritage under threat

I visit Cyprus with my Cypriot husband and our family once a year. This year I was startled to witness the number and the state of the abandoned houses around this beautiful capital. I took a small walk in the old town and then around Ayios Dhometios, and took many pictures of once beautiful houses now deserted and forgotten.

I am told that many of these amazing buildings belonged to people who have now passed away and whose families can’t afford (or lack the time or the interest) to maintain them. Because of the crisis no loans are granted for this purpose either. Thus countless beautiful dwellings like these are literally turning to dust around the island, right before our eyes. I am sure many Cypriots share my concern, the same way as my Cypriot family does.

As an architecture lover and the mother of two young Cypriots, I plead with Cypriots and foreigners who love this country and treasure the memories of their nearest and dearest now gone. Please preserve this invaluable cultural heritage the previous generations built and cherished, before it’s too late.

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I plead with the current owners: if you can afford it, grant the property you inherited the respect, love and care the house, its history and the people who lived in it deserve. With just a tiny bit of imagination and dedication you will end up with a gem that will multiply its value when historical houses will become sought-after rarities. For inspiration, take a walk around the old town of Nicosia where restoration is finally on-going and see what potential these buildings possess!

If you cannot maintain an old house, please sell it if you can find someone who can.

Foreigners who love Cyprus: instead of an apartment in a dull block, think about investing in one of these renovators’ dream houses and bringing it back to life.

Banks around the country: grant applicants loans for the restoration of Cyprus cultural heritage everywhere on the island.

Cyprus media and everybody who loves Cyprus and its’ beautiful architecture from by-gone eras: spread the word!

Before it’s too late, before decades and centuries of Cypriot lifestyle and memories disappear under the wheels of a bulldozer.

 

Aino Haapala-Samuel

Finland

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.