Nicosia -CYPRUS

 

Nicosia, the capital of the island of Cyprus, is one of the oldest cities in the eastern Mediterranean. The heart of the city lies within the walls built in the 16th century by the Venetians and includes interesting museums and exhibition centres, Byzantine churches, buildings of the Middle Ages and neoclassical period. Nicosia has retained the romantic atmosphere of the past and the cosmopolitan rhythms of a modern European capital.

 

Nicosia was born just as the goddess of love Aphrodite was - it emerged out of the sea when millions of years ago the two large mountain ranges came together, united through layers of sand, fossils and embankments in such a way that they formed a large and fertile plain, the Messaoria plain.

 

Greater Nicosia is probably the only area in Cyprus which can claim that it has been continuously inhabited without a break, since the Copper era, around 4.000 BC until nowadays. In ancient times and during the first centuries of Christianity it was known as the Kingdom of Ledra. Nicosia must have been declared capital of the island and the centre of administration in the tenth century.

 

From 1192 to 1571 the city of Nicosia was the capital of the medieval kingdom of Cyprus. The Lusignan family, from Poitiers France bought the island from Richard the Lionheart who conquered the island during the 3^rd crusade in 1191. Nicosia became their capital and was transformed it into a magnificent city with royal palaces and many gothic churches and monasteries. The city remained the capital of the island during the Venetian rule from 1474 to 1570 AD. Nicosia's Venetian walls are considered to this day as a prototype of military architecture of the Renaissance period. These walls have been maintained to our present times with very few interventions. The Ottomans captured the island in 1571 and the city became the seat of their administration. When Cyprus was handed over to the administration of the United Kingdom in 1878 Nicosia regained its former glory and became the capital of the British administration.

 

Since the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960, Nicosia is the capital of the island. Unfortunately for the past 42 years, since 1963 due to intercommunal problems it has been divided. It historical centre, the entire city is cut in two by the so called Green Line. The island of Cyprus has been divided as well since 1974. This Line is the result of the invasion and occupation of our homeland by the Turkish troops.

 

Today Nicosia is a modern, cosmopolitan capital, rich in history and culture. The city is the most important administrative and commercial centre of the island and combines a rich historical past with the fast growing pace of a modern European capital.

 

 

The buffer zone, which keeps the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Nicosia apart, has split their town into two separate urban parts, which have been developing independently of each other, thus causing the transformation of the city’s structure and the disintegration of its entity. Suburbanisation and the political circumstances which caused the division of the town have had unfortunate effects on economic and living conditions in Nicosia. The existence of the Buffer Zone, which runs through the middle of the city and the historic center itself, has undermined its centrality and turned it into a «frontier» town. Under the impact of rapid growth, and the reality of its division into two separate parts, years of unplanned and uncontrolled development have created accumulated problems for contemporary Nicosia.

 

 

In 1979, at a meeting of the representatives of both, the Greek and Turkish Communities in Nicosia, it was agreed that the two sides should co-operate closely for the purpose of preparing a common Master Plan for the proper unified development of the city. The development objective of the subsequently agreed Project document focused on the improvement of the existing and future habitat and human settlement conditions of all the inhabitants of the city. For this project, technical assistance was requested and obtained from the United Nations Development program UNDP.

 

 

The bi-communal multidisciplinary team of national and international experts was formed in 1981 in order to handle the difficult task of preparing a joint Master Plan and securing the harmonious development of Nicosia. This team consisted of town planners, architects, civil engineers, sociologist, economists, and experts in traffic and transportation, conservation, landscape, urban finance and other technical staff from both sides. The formation of this bicommunal team was one of the first attempts at technical co-operation between the two communities. 

 

The two parts of the Nicosia Master Plan team had regular meetings under the coordination of the UNDP.

 

 

The unusual circumstances prevailing in Cyprus, and particularly in Nicosia as a divided city, have made the task of the technical planning team working on the project, not only difficult but also different from the normal planning process and methodology, with which planners are generally familiar.

 

The Nicosia Master Plan team confronted this challenge in two phases over a five-year period.

 

-                      The first phase between 1981 and 1984 defined a general development strategy, based on the need to concentrate and consolidate the city. The proposed plan, was sufficiently flexible, so as to be adaptable to changing circumstances. It contained principles and proposals, capable of addressing the planning problems of Nicosia as a whole, as well as problems relating to the existing situation.

 

-                      The second phase, between 1984 and 1986, focused on a more detailed operational plan for the central area of Nicosia, including the historic center and the central business district.

 

This area, because of its vicinity to the buffer zone, faced serious development problems, such as the physical decay of the walled city, the sprawl of shops and offices into adjacent residential neighborhoods, traffic congestion, limited facilities for safe pedestrian movement, very few open green spaces, and generally a lack of identity as the city center.

 

The major task of the NMP was to give priority for the development of the central area and at the same time to restrain urban sprawl. Efforts were also directed towards the integration of land use, transport planning and economic development.

 

 

During the process of drafting the Master Plan for Nicosia, attention was paid particularly to the formulation of a preservation and rehabilitation policy, for the historic center and the other conservation areas, which are considered by the project as the most important and precious parts of the city.

 

The walled city, through its historic, cultural and architectural value, reflects the intermingling of different cultures and is considered to be a unique specimen of international heritage.

 

For this reason, during the third phase of the Nicosia Master Plan, which started in 1986, all major efforts have focused on this area.

 

The process of urbanization initially, and the division of the town subsequently, transferred the focus of activities outside the walls into the new business center, so that the historic center – once the core of various activities – became an “edge zone” of marginal importance in the frame of the new town.

 

For many years, this historic area had been subjected to physical decay and socioeconomic decline, conditions which resulted in a loss of population and employment, and deterioration of its architectural and environmental quality.

 

The conservation policy defined by the Nicosia Master Plan, aims to arrest these trends and re-establish a new role for this area.

 

The architectural heritage is recognized by the team, as a cultural and economic asset to be integrated into the life of the contemporary society. Therefore, the major objective is, to develop, conserve and revitalize the historic center, so as to promote the sustainable improvement of the environment, and re-establish its important and specific socioeconomic and cultural role in contemporary Nicosia.

 

The Nicosia Master Plan sees the conservation of the walled city, as a multi-dimensional process incorporating Architectural, Planning, Social and Economic objectives.

 

 

Currently, in the context of the third phase of the Nicosia Master Plan, a series of integrated priority investment projects are initiated focusing on housing rehabilitation and pedestrianisation. These projects, represent the backbone of the policy for the walled city, and constitute the common tool for implementation of both sides of the city.

 

Priority is given to twin projects on the two sides, which will give the initiative to the public sector to act as catalyst and have a direct impact on the historic centre.

 

In most of these projects emphasis is placed on housing rehabilitation and pedestrianisation schemes.

 

 

Chrysaliniotissa Revitalization Project was selected as the first to be implemented because of the outstanding architectural character and social merits of this area.

 

The relative neglect of this area by the property owners, the low income position of both owner-occupiers and tenants, the lack of community facilities as well as its proximity to the buffer zone have been the main factors that contributed to the general deterioration of the overall residential environment.

 

As the data indicated there was no possibility for private initiative to lead to conservation and revitalization of this Area.

 

The proposed housing policy consists of the following three types of action aiming to improve housing conditions, increase the available housing stock and attract new families.

 

(a)       Provision of housing grants and other incentives for the restoration of all the listed building of 

 

(b)       Acquisition of vacant traditional houses for rehabilitation, thus ensuring that this portion of the

 

(c)        Construction of new houses on vacant sites following their acquisition.

 

The overall objective of this project as well as at its twin project at the other side was to produce new simple housing units, typologically correct, compatible with the contemporary way of life, with the lowest possible cost in order to be accessible to the target population. 

 

The project aims to attract in the area, young couples with children as permanent residents of the area.

 

A number of important social facilities will also be provided through direct public investment, including a nursery school, public green open spaces, students hostel and selective pedestrianisation.

 

 

Along the commercial axis of the walled city, on both sides, activity was gradually declining. The main causes for this decline were the constraints imposed on pedestrian movement by car traffic and on-street parking, the deterioration of the physical environment, congestion, pollution, and the development of new commercial centers on the outskirts of Nicosia. The pedestrianisation project, which has already been implemented, aimed at the rehabilitation and the environmental improvement of the business area in order to allow it to compete with the new commercial centers of the modern city. The main components of this project are the pedestrianisation of the commercial streets, the creation of short-term parking areas in selected locations and the introduction of mini-buses which circulate move in the periphery of the pedestrianised area providing free of charge optimum facilities to the people.

 

 

Other special projects involving the restoration of the architectural heritage, the rehabilitation of neglected areas, the improvement of green open spaces, the improvement of traffic and parking conditions and the enhancement of pedestrian facilities have also been implemented or are scheduled for implementation.

 

The pilot schemes relating to the selected zones of the study area constitute the first substantial step towards the implementation of the Nicosia Master Plan policies.

 

 

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