Fractures in Enclosure: Nicosia within the Walls, 1955-1974

26.05.25
19.30-20.30

The Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia and the Association of the Friends of the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia and the A. G. Leventis Gallery are presenting a series of four lectures dedicated to the memory of Lellos Demetriades (3.2.1933 – 9.4.2022), Mayor of Nicosia (1971-2001), who led the way for a united city.

The themes of the lectures will focus on the temporary exhibition Sector 2: Nicosia of the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia.

2nd Lecture

The second lecture in the series, titled ‘Fractures in Enclosure: Nicosia within the Walls, 1955-1974’, examines how intercommunal conflicts (1956-1958, 1963-1964) and the Turkish invasion (1974) led to the eruption of a broader crisis and the reshaping of Nicosia as a city.

The category of ‘working refugees’ was among the displaced: people who had either lost their jobs or were forced to abandon or relocate their businesses to areas controlled by the Republic of Cyprus, thereby drastically disturbing the city’s economic map. Displacement did not only concern people, but also spaces, social and communal structures and the very cultural identity of the city. Coexistence began to shift into a fragile co-presence, and this was the beginning of a process of fragmentation and segregation – even if people continued to live in the same city daily. Once vibrant neighbourhoods were transformed into ruins or isolated sites, commercial hubs collapsed, and the urban social fabric was violently disrupted. In the landscape one now encounters memorials, schools and religious and other institutions relocated from other areas.

Ultimately, what was the experience of those who stayed behind? How did they adjust to the new reality of daily survival in a fractured city? And how did the city of Nicosia survive through memory, loss, threat and the constant renegotiation of space? This lecture approaches displacement as a multifaceted phenomenon and investigates it through a multidimensional prism – social, cultural, economic – asking how it was recorded and reinterpreted through time and how it shaped a new, divided urban landscape, reconfiguring its pre-existing structures and creating new continuities across space and time.

Speakers:

Maria Christodoulou, PhD (University of Leicester), Independent Researcher

Iliana Koulafeti, PhD candidate in oral history, Cyprus University of Technology / CYENS Centre of Excellence

Participation: Free
Language: Greek

Reservations required: +357 22661475 / Email: info@leventismuseum.org.cy

Please note that the lecture will begin exactly on time. It is recommended to arrive at the venue 10 minutes before the scheduled start.