Agios Nikolaos Soleas is a small Greek community of the Lefkosia district, in the geographical region of Solea. It lies 15 kilometres south-west of Morfou, at an elevation of 180 metres, in the valley of the Karkotis river, north-west of the Skouriotissa copper mines.¹ In the 1960 census it had 67 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.

Name

It took its name from Saint Nikolaos (Nicholas), to whom its church is dedicated. The official gazetteer of Cyprus records it as Agios Nikolaos of the Lefkosia district, and in the official lists of communities it is Agios Nikolaos Soleas, after the region of Solea. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village was also often called “Agios Nikolas tis Solias”.²

Founding and first records

The first written mention of the village that has been found is the property survey made by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, where Agios Nikolaos is recorded as a village of the administrative district of Lefka. In the British topographical survey of Cyprus made by Herbert Kitchener in the first years of British rule it is marked as “Ayios Nikolaos”.³ The British architect George Jeffery, who recorded the monuments of Cyprus in 1918, describes it as a small settlement with modern buildings.⁴

Turkish rule

In the survey of 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Agios Nikolaos is recorded as a village with a mixed population and seven households holding property. The holdings were wheat fields, cotton fields and small gardens with mulberry trees, with a threshing floor and running water, and 53 olive trees. There were a water mill, two olive presses and a tannery in the village, and the inhabitants had oxen for ploughing and one cow.⁵ On the land of the village the Gazetteer also records the place-names Paliomylos and Mylonissa.⁶

Churches and monasteries

The Greek Orthodox church of the village is dedicated to Saint Nikolaos and was its parish church. The cemetery lies about 350 metres east of the village centre, towards neighbouring Agios Georgios.⁷ The 2009 list of occupied churches of the Church of Cyprus also records, under the name “Agios Nikolaos Lefkas”, a church of Agios Nikolaos that has collapsed and is in ruins.

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, although rainfall in the area is low, the Karkotis allowed part of the land to be irrigated. The inhabitants grew citrus fruit, olives, a few fruit trees and a little cereals, while stock-breeding was not much developed. The Skouriotissa mining company had its head offices very close to the village.⁸

Population

The population of Agios Nikolaos grew in the 20th century together with the neighbouring mines of Skouriotissa, Foukasa, Mavrovouni and Apliki, which according to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia contributed greatly to its growth.⁹ In 1931 the village had 124 inhabitants, 123 Christians and one Muslim, and in 1946 132, of whom 127 were Orthodox and 5 Muslims (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 67 inhabitants, all of them Greeks, and in 1973 62 Greeks.

National struggles

The Register of EOKA Fighters lists 3 Greek inhabitants of the village who took part in or supported the Struggle.

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 the Greek population of the community left the village to protect itself from the advancing Turkish army. Because the community ended up in the buffer zone, the inhabitants were not allowed to return.¹⁰

The church of Agios Nikolaos and the cemetery also lie within the buffer zone, and their condition has not been possible to check.