Tag Archives: Avgorou (Αυγόρου)

Memorial to the dead and missing

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Artist: Andreas Savvides

Location: Next to Archbishop Makarios III church, Avgorou. Ammochostos district.  

Category: EOKA 1955-59, Turkish Invasion 

Photography: Vicky Karaiskou

In 1979 a local committee submitted an application to the Ministry of Education explaining the need to commemorate Makarios III along with the eight Avgorou dead during the 1955-59 struggles and the Turkish invasion. 

The application indicated as the most suitable place for the memorial the area behind the church. It also provided a rough aesthetic layout of the memorial. Seven years afterwards the monument was finished with the support of Avgorou Community and the Union of Avgorou expatriates in England. Although the current place of the memorial is the same as initially suggested, the final artwork followed a radically different aesthetic and structural layout.

The unveiling took place on March 22nd 1986.

Selected sources: 
~ Ελευθερία (Eleftheria), December 16, 1962, p. 8.
~ Κρατικό Αρχείο Κύπρου, Αρχείο Πολιτιστικών Υπηρεσιών Υπουργείου
Παιδείας & Πολιτισμού (State Archive of Cyprus): 268-1968-2.
~ Κρατικό Αρχείο Κύπρου, Αρχείο Πολιτιστικών Υπηρεσιών Υπουργείου
Παιδείας & Πολιτισμού (State Archive of Cyprus): 268-1968-3, document
February 12, 1979.

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Memorial to the EOKA 1955-59 heroes

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Artists:  Christos Symeonidis Chrisimos, Phylactis Ierides,

Philippos Yiapanis 

Location: On the Avgorou-Lioperiou road. Ammochostos district.

Dimensions: The memorial occupies an area of 14,500 m.sq.

Category: EOKA 1955-59

Photography: Vicky Karaiskou

The wish to honour the Avgorou dead fighters goes back to 1962 when the first actions to gather the necessary funds took place. More than twenty years afterwards, in March 1985, the EOKA 1955-59 Avgorou members’ decision to construct a memorial materialized.

The intention of the initiative was to remind the origins, symbolize the main principles of the EOKA 1955-59 struggle, and commemorate Modestos Panteli, the first EOKA fighter who died on April 1st 1955.

For that reason the area where the memorial is situated today was symbolically chosen, being the exact place of his death. The memorial honors the memory of all Avgorou and the nearby Liopetri village EOKA’s dead fighters and aspired to be the reference point for the whole of Cyprus during the annual commemorations on April 1st.

The funding of this extensive project was secured mainly by the EOKA 1955-59 members, and the Board for the Historical Memory of the EOKA 1955-59 Struggle (SIMAE). Other state and private entities also made contributions.

A procession path flanked with a row of cypress trees links the ancient Greek Corinthian style entrance with the Mycenaean-like tomb. The path opens up to an ancient Greek theater construction. The distance between the theater’s semicircular auditorium and the tomb is flanked with dark stone panels where the names of the dead appear.

Inside the tomb, 26 portraits in relief were made by the three sculptors. Because of the limited budget, black and white photographs of the deceased substituted part of the total of 108 portraits initially planned to cover the walls.

Following the ancient Greek tradition, where theaters were adjacent to temples and in particular to Dionysus temple in order to underline the origins and the higher purpose of the theater culture, at Avgorou village, the nearby chapel was erected to remind the close relation between religion and motherland in modern Cyprus.

The unveiling of the monument took place on October 18th 2002.

Selected sources:
~ Σημερινή (Simerini), March 13, 1985, p. 3.
~ Ελευθερία (Eleftheria), December 16, 1962, p. 8.
~ Φιλελεύθερος (Fileleftheros), October 18, 2002, p. 20.
~ Φιλελεύθερος (Fileleftheros), October 20, 2002, p. 32.
~ Κρατικό Αρχείο Κύπρου, Αρχείο Πολιτιστικών Υπηρεσιών Υπουργείου Παιδείας & Πολιτισμού (State Archive of Cyprus): 268/1968/2.
~ Κρατικό Αρχείο Κύπρου, Αρχείο Πολιτιστικών Υπηρεσιών Υπουργείου Παιδείας & Πολιτισμού (State Archive of Cyprus): 268/1968/12, Meetings Minutes, September 13, 1994; November 10, 1994.
~ Κρατικό Αρχείο Κύπρου, Αρχείο Πολιτιστικών Υπηρεσιών Υπουργείου Παιδείας & Πολιτισμού (State Archive of Cyprus): 268/1968/18, document December 2, 1998.
~ Ιστορικό Αρχείο ΣΙΜΑΕ (Historical Archive of the Board for the Historical Memory of the EOKA 1955-59 struggle), 17.2009.10, Meeting Minutes April 26, 2002.

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