Chrysiliou is an occupied quarter of Morfou, in the district of Lefkosia. It lies 3 kilometres northeast of the centre of Morfou, 50 metres above sea level, in the plain of Morfou. This is also how the official gazetteer of place names of Cyprus (the Gazetteer) records it.¹ In the 1960 census it had 69 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.

Name

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, which quotes Simos Menardos, the village took its name from some landowner of the area with the medieval Greek name Chrysilios or Chrysoulios, and not from the words “chrysos ilios” (golden sun), as some suppose.² On Kitchener’s map of Cyprus, in the first years of British rule, the name is written “Khrysiliou”.³ The Gazetteer records the settlement as “Χρυσηλιού, του” (Chrysiliou) and, on the land of Morfou, the place name “Chrysiliotika”.⁴

Archaeological sites

Near Chrysiliou, at the site of Ammos, a pre-Greek cemetery was found, known in the archaeological literature as “Khrysiliou-Ammos”. It belongs to the so-called Filia phase, which takes its name from neighbouring Filia and marks the passage of Cyprus into the Bronze Age. Researchers link the changes of this phase, in pottery, buildings and burials, with contacts with southern Asia Minor.⁵

Turkish rule

In the property survey made by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Chrysiliou is recorded with ten property-holding households. They had mainly fields, a few cotton fields and fields of madder, the plant from which a red dye was made, six threshing floors, 40 olive trees and a few mulberries, an olive press and beehives. They also had about 80 sheep and goats, cows and oxen. Among the owners a convert to Islam is also recorded, Hursit.⁶

Churches and monasteries

The Greek Orthodox parish church of the village, to the north of the old settlement, is dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Saviour. It dates from the 16th century and was restored in the 18th. The village cemetery lay around it.⁷ According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, it is a small church built of dressed stone, and Menardos notes that the inhabitants called it Agia Sotira.⁸

Chrysiliou also had the chapel of Agios Georgios and the church of Agios Sergios, which had collapsed and survives in ruins.

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, Chrysiliou lay above the great aquifer of Morfou, and before 1974 boreholes irrigated a good deal of land, where citrus fruit was grown. In 1973 nineteen stock-breeders of the village kept 410 sheep and 35 goats.⁹

Population

Chrysiliou always remained small. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 92 inhabitants in 1881, 81 in 1891, 74 in 1901, 75 in 1911 and 40 in 1921.¹⁰ In 1931 it had 31 inhabitants, all of them Christians, and in 1946 52, all of them Orthodox (the censuses of 1931 and 1946 recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 69 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.

National struggles

In the 1950 Enosis plebiscite 34 inhabitants of Chrysiliou signed, which was recorded as a quarter of Morfou. The Register of EOKA Fighters lists one Greek inhabitant of the village who took part in or supported the Struggle.

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Chrysiliou was captured by the Turkish army and its Greek population was subjected to ethnic cleansing. Since then the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent the return of the inhabitants.

According to Cyprus Religious Heritage, there is now a large Muslim cemetery around the church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour, and the church appears to have been used for a time for washing the dead before burial. Large cracks have opened in its walls, and no trace survives of the village’s Greek Orthodox cemetery.¹¹ The 2009 list also records the chapel of Agios Georgios as a mortuary.

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1. A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, pp. 389, 1294.↩︎

2. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Χρυσηλιού».↩︎

3. The 1832/33 Ottoman Property Survey of Cyprus (Harokopio University, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation), «Chrysiliou».↩︎

4. A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, p. 1294.↩︎

5. I. Sandei, “The Philia facies and the Interaction Between Cyprus and Cilicia: The Transformations in the Architectural Structures”, KASKAL n.s. 1 (2024), 69–92, pp. 69–70.↩︎

6. The 1832/33 Ottoman Property Survey of Cyprus (Harokopio University, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation), «Chrysiliou».↩︎

7. Cyprus Religious Heritage, «Chrysiliou».↩︎

8. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Χρυσηλιού».↩︎

9. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Χρυσηλιού».↩︎

10. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Χρυσηλιού».↩︎

11. Cyprus Religious Heritage, «Chrysiliou».↩︎

Sources (10)

• A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, τ. 1: Χρυσηλιού, συνοικία και οικισμός της Μόρφου· Χρυσηλιώτικα (σ. 1294)· Hrisilyu (σ. 389)· Άμμος (σσ. 108–109)· Άγιος Σέργιος (σ. 67)
• Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Χρυσηλιού» (ετυμολογία κατά Μενάρδο, εκκλησία του Σωτήρος, υδροφόρο στρώμα και εσπεριδοειδή, κτηνοτροφία 1973· πληθυσμός 1881–1921)
• I. Sandei, “The Philia facies and the Interaction Between Cyprus and Cilicia: The Transformations in the Architectural Structures”, KASKAL n.s. 1 (2024), 69–92, σσ. 69–70 και σημ. 5 (νεκροταφείο Khrysiliou-Ammos, φάση της Φιλιάς)
• The 1832/33 Ottoman Property Survey of Cyprus (Harokopio University, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation), «Chrysiliou» (Kitchener: «Khrysiliou»)· εξισλαμισμένος: householdperson 19288
• Cyprus Religious Heritage, «Chrysiliou» (Μεταμόρφωση του Σωτήρος, κοιμητήριο· επίσκεψη 13.12.2021)
• Church of Cyprus, list of churches in the occupied areas (2009)
• Statistical Service of Cyprus, censuses, 1931, 1946, 1960
• Ethnarchy of Cyprus, announcement of the Enosis plebiscite results by village, 27.1.1950, «Χρυσηλιού 34 (quarter Χρυσηλιού)»
• Register of EOKA Fighters 1955-1959 (SIMAE, 2004)
• Morphou Municipality (morphou.org.cy)

Links (2)

• Cyprus Religious Heritage, «Chrysiliou»
• Morphou Municipality (morphou.org.cy)