Agios Georgios is a mixed community of the Lefkosia district, in the geographical region of Soleas. It lies 14 kilometres south-west of Morfou, at an elevation of 180 metres, at the low northern end of the Soleas valley, beside the Karkotis river. The Skouriotissa and Foukasa mines lie on its land.¹ In the 1960 census it had 460 inhabitants, of whom 312 were Greeks and 143 Turks.

Name

It took its name from Saint George, to whom its church is dedicated. The official gazetteer of Cyprus calls it “Agios Georgios Lefkas”, after neighbouring Lefka, while in the official lists of communities it is Agios Georgios Soleas.²

Antiquity

On the village’s land, at Skouriotissa, there are traces of ancient copper mining. The British architect George Jeffery, who recorded the monuments of Cyprus in 1918, describes there a vast expanse of black slag, that is, the waste from smelting the ore, from the ancient mines, which opened caves in the surrounding rocks. It was from these heaps of slag that the Panagia Skouriotissa took her name.³

Turkish rule

In the property survey made by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Agios Georgios is recorded as a village with a mixed population and 13 households holding property, in the administrative district of Lefka. The holdings were mainly wheat fields, with a few cotton fields and gardens with mulberry trees, threshing floors and running water, and 74 olive trees. The village had a watermill and an olive press, and the inhabitants had oxen for ploughing, a few cows, sheep and beehives.⁴

Churches and monasteries

The Greek Orthodox church of the village, in the northern part of the old settlement, is dedicated to Saint George. It dates from the 12th century, with later additions, and is an Ancient Monument. The village cemetery was most probably near it.⁵

On the village’s land there were also the churches of Agios Theodoros and Profitis Ilias, which are now ruins.⁶

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the Karkotis and the neighbouring mines shaped the life of the village. In the 20th century most of the inhabitants worked in the mines of Skouriotissa, Foukasa, Mavrovouni and Apliki, and some in the mining installations at Xeros, while the mining company had its head offices very close to the village. The land, with abundant running water, was irrigated and planted with citrus, fruit trees and vegetables, while olives were grown together with cereals. In 1973 the inhabitants kept about 150 sheep, 200 goats and more than three thousand poultry.⁷

Population

The population of Agios Georgios grew with the mines, which, according to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, contributed greatly to its increase. According to the same source, the village had 119 inhabitants in 1881, 113 in 1891, 141 in 1901, 152 in 1911 and 178 in 1921.⁸ In 1931 the village had 389 inhabitants, 273 Christians and 116 Muslims, and in 1946 477, of whom 317 were Orthodox, 154 Muslims and 6 of another religion (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 460 inhabitants, 312 Greeks, 143 Turks and 5 others, and in 1973 259 Greeks. In the school year 1973–74 the Greek primary school had 15 pupils and one teacher.

National struggles

In the 1950 Enosis referendum 222 inhabitants signed, practically all the adult Greek inhabitants. The Register of EOKA Fighters lists 36 Greek inhabitants of the village who took part in or supported the Struggle.

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Agios Georgios found itself on the ceasefire line. The Greek inhabitants fled before the advancing Turkish army, and the Greek population of the village was subjected to ethnic cleansing. Its northern part was occupied by the Turkish army, and almost all the rest of the village lies inside the buffer zone and is deserted. Since then the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent the return of the inhabitants.⁹

The church of Agios Georgios was looted after 1974 and lies inside a Turkish military zone, to which no one has access.¹⁰ The occupation forces illegally converted the church into a military guard post.