NICOSIA Municipality is currently waiting for altered plans from Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid that will take account of the archaeological findings uncovered during the digging up of Eleftheria Square.
Hadid is due to meet Municipality Architect Nayia Savvidou to discuss a timeline and the details of the newly ascertained architectural sensitivities of the project.
Once her revisions are received and approved by the Antiquities Department, then the tender process for construction can be launched and the €8.5 million EU-funded project for the new square should, in theory, be able to begin.
Excavations in the square have just been completed. Digging began in September of last year and had been billed to last for a minimum of two months in the event that nothing of significance was found.
Following the Antiquities Department’s compulsory investigation of the area before the plans to dramatically transform the aesthetics of the square could take place, a large, second tier to the D’Avila moat and Venetian Walls that encompass old Nicosia was uncovered. Eleftheria square itself is a relatively modern structure, having first been constructed as a bridge by the British in 1882 to connect the old city to the outside of the walls, before being filled in with concrete in 1933 to support the increase in traffic between the commercial centre of the city and the growing suburbs of the mercantile elite.
The Antiquities Department has presented to Nicosia Municipality details of the necessary alterations that will need to be incorporated into Hadid’s proposed design so that the uncovered structures are both featured and protected in the final project, which among other transformations includes a sloping descent on either side of the square into the adjacent parks. Marina Ieronimidou, Curator at the Antiquities Department, said yesterday: “The proposed design of the square will need to take into account the historical significance and cultural heritage possessed by the walls.”
Further conditions include stipulations on the permitted distance from the wall at which engineers will be allowed to place the structures that will support the new square, and the level at which the new square will be able to be ascended in regard to the walls.
Ieronimidou added: “The existing structures will need to be absorbed into the plans, while remaining a central component of the design, both for their protection and maintenance, as well as their importance to our cultural history.” She was also adamant that Hadid’s plans are “certainly acceptable, so long as they appreciate and facilitate the historical structure’s preservation.” When asked about whether there was the possibility of any other hidden archaeological segments being found in the surrounding area, she explained that “only the remnant structure of the second tier of the wall was uncovered and not any smaller archaeological artefacts. The design of the wall is such that all parts in that specific section have now been uncovered.”
The uncovering of the second tier of wall has provided further ammunition to the group of archaeologists, architects and prominent personalities known straightforwardly as ‘Nicosia Citizens Against The Transformation of Eleftheria Square’ and headed by architect and former mayoral candidate Anna Marangou, who had sent a joint letter following the uncovering of the proposed plans in 2005 to Nicosia Mayor Eleni Mavrou and a number of other international cultural protection institutions.
They demanded a rethink on the proposed design that had been approved by the municipality. The letter argued that while Hadid’s modern design might be aesthetically pleasing on its own, it would be an incongruous and extravagant installation beside the “innovative Renaissance walls of a great mediaeval city”, and would exact “irreplaceable damage” to the square and indeed the entirety of old Nicosia’s architectural heritage.
Marangou, speaking to the Cyprus Mail, said that the group was “expecting to be briefed on the proposed revisions of Hadid”, though that she still believed that the plans were “fundamentally flawed in a huge amount of ways.” She argues that unless a dramatic revision of the plans is made, the massive project will be the “cause of an array of negative effects; from ecological damage to the trees located in the surrounding parks, commercial and financial damage to the whole of the centre of old Nicosia as a result of the effective closure of the area for two years, and cultural damage to the identity of Cyprus, whose future generations will have no way to grasp the historical essence that was once contained in the area.” Marangou was keen to highlight that her organisation is completely in favour of refurbishing the square and pursuing plans for “a continuation of the pedestrian zones of Ledra St and Onasagorou all the way until Makarios Avenue”, which she argues will be a “much more economically reasonable sol
ution that will benefit the people of Cyprus and maintain Nicosia’s identity.
If people say that ‘Europeanisation’ means the imposition of an alien concrete structure in the middle of a delicate and historically opulent city, then I will strongly disagree and say that ‘Europeanisation’ means bringing back history and culture to the cities where they belong.” The group’s desire to persuade Mavrou to adopt a plan to “help make Nicosia the world-class showcase of mediaeval and Renaissance art and architecture” might now be indirectly granted a small compromise, depending on the level of alteration Hadid makes to her plans, as the notion of binning the proposed €8.5 million EU-funded plans altogether is not an option that is currently on the Mayor’s table.
