By Athena Karsera
NICOSIA Municipality yesterday rejected claims that a Ledra Street building had too much historical value to be torn down to make way for a car park.
Architects and environmentalists, however, stood by their calls that the building should be saved.
Shopkeepers at the ‘Stoa Stavrinides’ – the Stavrinides Archway – have until the middle of next month to leave the arcade, which is set to be bulldozed so the Shacolas Group can build a car park. The site lies across the street from Shacolas’ flagship Woolworth department store, and adjacent to the group’s Next outlet.
The chief city engineer at the Nicosia technical services office, Dinos Constantinou, yesterday told the Cyprus Mailthat the Archway was not on the Interior Ministry’s list of protected buildings. “If had been, no permission would have been given for it to be torn down.”
He said a three-levelled car park would be sunk underground, with its entrance on the parallel back street rather than on the popular pedestrian shopping street. Another shopping arcade would be built where the Archway currently stands, he added.
Constantinou said the Shacolas Group was fully within its rights to tear down the building and build a car-park as official permission had been granted.
Replying to an Ecological Movement statement condemning the Archway’s demolition, he added that anyone had the right to their opinion, but that the Municipality felt there was nothing to further to discuss on the issue.
An official at the Nicosia Master Plan office admitted to the Cyprus Mailthat several architects had objected to the building being demolished, but that their protests had been made after planning permission had already been given.
The official, who did not wish to be named, said the Interior Ministry’s town planning office had completed its list of protected buildings in west Nicosia long before the Shacolas Group had applied to knock down the building. The Ministry “never even had any intention of making that building protected,” she said.
She said the Municipality had to rehabilitate as well as restore the old- town and had to decide on what action would be most beneficial for the town: “It will be a public car-park, something that the area needs.”
George Perdikis of the Ecological Movement yesterday told the Cyprus Mailthat “it’s not the first time the Municipality has overlooked an important building in the favour of other interests.”
Perdikis said the home of national poet Andis Pernaris had been demolished, “with the same logic,” and that this was just one of several examples.
He said that the Movement had worked to save other buildings from destruction, but that these had now simply been left “unprotected for time to take its toll on them.”
Perdikis also noted that the rear of the Archway had been the home of Eleftherianewspaper, established in 1905 and closing on the first day of the Turkish Invasion in 1974.
“This was a historical newspaper, perhaps the buildings could be turned into a Press museum,” Perdikis suggested. “This would give visitors something to see, it would have a purpose.”
An architect, who wished to remain anonymous, said she would like to know exactly what criteria the Municipality used in declaring buildings as protected.
“The ‘Stoa’ is almost unique in its style,” the architect told the Cyprus Mail. “I believe the building shows the transition from the neoclassical to the modern style.”
“In terms of town-planning,” she continued, “there are not many arcades in Nicosia.” The architect added that a modern arcade could not replace the current one in terms of architectural importance.
She said that the Ledra Street side of the building, added in 1955 after the side housing Eleftheria, showed the influence of European 1930s trends, and wondered where the Municipality had its chronological cut-off point for buildings considered important enough for protection.
