The maintenance works of the church of Prophet Ilias in the occupied Stylloi village of Famagusta district have been completed, a project which was delivered today Friday.
The project was co-financed by the European Union and the Community and implemented by UNDP.
In a post on social media, Sotos Ktoris, Greek Cypriot co-chairman of the Technical Committee for Cultural Heritage, states that "according to a newspaper of the time and a relevant inscription on the western entrance, the church was built in 1919. It is the work of Iakovos Pavlos (Iakovos P .) or otherwise Mastre-Giakoumi with the church being of large dimensions and differing morphologically from the standards of the time".
He adds that "the bell tower is assumed to have been completed in 1953, the date the church was inaugurated".
According to Mr. Ktoris' post, "the biggest challenge for the experts involved in the project was the static and architectural restoration of the bell tower, which is a special mixed construction of stone and reinforced concrete."
It is also noted that "due to the bad condition of the bell tower, mainly due to the oxidation of the armor, but also its general vulnerability, it was decided to reconstruct it. During the reconstruction, the same construction logic and the original form and dimensions of the existing bell tower were used."