The following Armenian places of worship are located in the Turkish-occupied areas:
THE
ARMENIANS
OF CYPRUS
21
l
Panoramic view of the Armenian
compound on Armenia street,
Strovolos (Prelature, Virgin Mary
cathedral, Nareg School,
Armenian Genocide Monument).
(2010).
•
In walled Nicosia, there is the Gothic cathedral of
the Virgin Mary. It was originally built in 1308 as the
Benedictine nunnery of Notre Dame de Tyre or
Tortosa, where Armenian-Catholic nuns also served.
Sometime before 1504 it passed into the hands of
the Armenian Apostolic Church and it had been the
centre of the Armenian community of Cyprus until it
was captured, along with the rest of the Armenian
quarter, by Turkish-Cypriot extremists in January
1964. By the initiative of the Armenian Ethnarchy and
the Office of the Armenian Representative and
funding by the UNDP-ACT and USAID, it was restored
between 2009 and 2012, winning the 2015 Europa
Nostra award for conservation. As of 2014, liturgies
are held a few times a year.
•
Also in walled Nicosia, there is the small Armenian
Evangelical church, which was built between 1946
and 1947. It is currently used, illegally, as a music
centre.
•
In walled Famagusta, there is the church of Virgin
Mary the Caller (Sourp Asdvadzadzin Ganchvor),
built in 1346. Left unused for about four centuries, it
was repaired between 1937 and 1944 by the
Antiquities Department and it served the small
Famagusta Armenian community from 1945 until
1963, when the walled city was taken by Turkish-
Cypriot extremists. As of 2015 it is being restored by
UNDP-PFF.
•
Of great importance is the Saint Makarios monastery
(Sourp Magar or Magaravank), located in Halevga, on
the Pentadaktylos mountain range. The monastery
was originally established by Copts circa the year
1000 and by 1425 it had already passed into the
hands of the Armenians. For centuries it served as
a renowned place of pilgrimage, a place of rest and
a way station for Armenian clergymen and pilgrims
en route to the Holy Land. A large number of
invaluable manuscripts were housed there, as was the
miraculous icon of Saint Makarios, outside the
monastery’s chapel (1814). Until the Turkish invasion
of 1974, the money from the exploitation of its vast
lands (about 8.500 donums) and its 30.000 olive and
carob trees constituted the Prelature’s main source
of income. By the joint initiative of the Office of the
Armenian Representative and the Armenian
Ethnarchy, annual pilgrimages to the monastery are
organised every May, as of 2007. Left at the mercy of
nature and vandals, today it is in a pitiful state.
