Tag Archives: Lakatamia Municipality (Δήμος Λακατάμιας)

Memorial to the Lakatamia dead and missing & Grigoris Afxentiou (Γρηγόρης Αυξεντίου) bust

Μνημείο πεσόντων και αγνοουμένων Λακατάμιας και προτομή Γρηγόρη Αυξεντίου (3)n Μνημείο πεσόντων και αγνοουμένων Λακατάμιας και προτομή Γρηγόρη Αυξεντίου (4)n

Artist: Leonidas Spanos

Location: Archbishop Makarios III Avenue, Lakatamia. Nicosia district

Material: Marble

Category: ΕΟΚΑ 1955-59, Inter-communal conflicts 1963-64, Turkish Invasion

Photography: Evangelia Matthopoulou

The initiative for the memorial was taken by Pano Lakatamia “Grigoris Afxentiou” Democratic union and an ad hoc committee for the memorial who coordinated the fundraising. The unveiling took place on February 16th 1992.

Grigoris Afxentiou’ bust is situated on a tall pedestal and is flanked by a semi-circular marble wall with the names and the black and white photographs of the dead and missing in a time-span of 20 years, from 1954 till 1974 included.

On the pedestal, under his name is noted his nickname as “The Golden Eagle of Machairas” (Ο Σταυραετός του Μαχαιρά).

Selected sources:
~ Κρατικό Αρχείο Κύπρου, Αρχείο Πολιτιστικών Υπηρεσιών Υπουργείου Παιδείας & Πολιτισμού (State Archive of Cyprus): 268/1968/8, Meeting Minutes July 18, 1991.

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Memorial to the Kontemenos dead and missing

Μνημείο πεσόντων Κοντεμένου (3)n Μνημείο πεσόντων Κοντεμένου (7)n

Artist: Unknown

Location: Spyros Kyprianou Avenue, Lakatamia. Nicosia district 

Category: Inter-communal conflicts 1958, Turkish Invasion, Modern sculpture

Photography: Evangelia Matthopoulou

The initiative for the memorial was taken by the community of Kontemenos, currently in the occupied area of Cyprus. The unveiling took place on June 12th 2011.

The falling fighter’s figure, cut in metal plates, imitates the slow motion of a film’s frames. His repeated silhouette composes an eloquent narration which eliminates all the secondary visual items, indispensible and inevitable in a naturalistic composition, thus focusing on the main event: the perishing. The lack of any detail produces an inclusive and symbolic image of actual or metaphorical death. The raised hand alludes to a weapon or, vice-versa, the raised weapon alludes to the familiar spasm of the body that has been shot. This summarizing process adds expressive power to the depicted figure, while the surrounding architecture construction frames it in a plain and clear manner.  

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Kyriakos Matsis (Κυριάκος Μάτσης) statue

Ανδριάντας Κυριάκου Μάτση (1)n Ανδριάντας Κυριάκου Μάτση (6)n

Artist: Leonidas Spanos 

Location: Archbishop Makarios III Avenue, Lakatamia. Nicosia district

Category: EOKA 1955-59

Photography: Evangelia Matthopoulou

The initiative for the memorial was taken in 2008 by Lakatamia National Union “Kyriakos Matsis”. The unveiling took place on October 4th 2009.

On the wall behind the statue, on the (viewer’s) left hand side, are written his words: “I fight for this land, so those who water it with their sweat can live free, able to claim its ownership and management” (Αγωνίζομαι τη γη αυτή να τη ζουν αυτοί που τη ποτίζουν με τον ιδρώτα τους και να περπατούν πάνω της ελεύθεροι, διαφεντευτές της, κυρίαρχοί της). On the right hand side is noted his answer to Field Marshal Harding: “We do not fight for the money, we fight for the values” (Ου περί χρημάτων τον αγώνα ποιούμεθα αλλά περί αρετής).

Selected sources:
~ Ιστορικό Αρχείο ΣΙΜΑΕ (Historical Archive of the Board for the Historical Memory of the EOKA 1955-59 struggle), 17.2008.9, Meeting Minutes January 31, 2008.

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