Keryneia is the capital of the occupied district of the same name. It is built on the north coast of Cyprus, around a small harbour with a medieval castle, at an altitude of about 30 metres, between the sea and the foothills of the Pentadaktylos. It was the smallest town on the island. It was already a municipality in 1878. In the 1960 census it had 3,498 inhabitants, of whom 2,373 were Greeks and 696 Turks.

Name

The town has kept its name from antiquity to the present. The Greek historian Diodorus of Sicily (1st century BC) calls it Kerynia, and the Greek geographer Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) Keronia or Keraunia. In medieval Greek texts it appears as Kyrinia and Kiryneia, while Anna Komnene, who wrote the history of the reign of her father, the emperor Alexios I, mentions it as Kyrene. The Cypriot chronicler Leontios Machairas (15th century) writes Kerinia and calls its inhabitants «Κερινιώτες» (Kerinians). Tradition links the name to the ancient Greek city of the same name in Achaia in the Peloponnese.¹

Founding and first records

According to tradition, the town was founded after the Trojan War by Kepheus. The Greek poet Lycophron (3rd century BC) writes that Kepheus and Praxandros came to Cyprus, the one with Achaeans from Olenos, Dyme and Boura, a neighbouring town of Achaian Keryneia, and the other with Laconians from Therapne. The Greek geographer Strabo (1st century BC) records that the Laconians of Praxandros founded neighbouring Lapithos. The oldest find from the town is a tomb at Mylopetres, in Pano Keryneia, with Mycenaean pottery of the 13th century BC.²

The first written mention of Keryneia is in the “Periplus” attributed to the Greek geographer Skylax, a description of the coasts of the 4th century BC, which lists it among the coastal towns of Cyprus.

The town had two traditional quarters: Kato Keryneia (Lower Keryneia), around the harbour and the castle, and Pano Keryneia (Upper Keryneia), Riatiko. The two parishes of the town were those of the Archangel Michael and of Agios Georgios. In the 20th century the town spread towards the mountain, where the new quarter of Kallifornia was formed.³

Archaeological sites

Ancient Keryneia lies beneath the old town and has never been systematically excavated. What we know comes mainly from tombs that came to light during building works. As early as 1882–1883 the British officer Andrew Scott-Stevenson opened tombs in a cemetery of the Ptolemaic period around the town, which had already been heavily looted. West of the town, near the sea, stretches a large necropolis of rock-cut tombs, which the people of Keryneia called the “Tombs of the Greeks”. The philologist Athanasios Sakellarios also recorded the name “tombs of the idolaters”.⁴

From 1962 to 1973 the Department of Antiquities carried out rescue excavations of tombs within the town. In 1969 a half-looted tomb of the second half of the 13th century BC was found at Mylopetres, with Mycenaean vessels and a krater depicting a bull sniffing a shrub. Tomb 33, excavated in 1972, belongs to the Geometric ancient Greek period and contained 76 vessels. The tombs of the classical Greek period had Attic vessels, among them a red-figure lekythos, as well as Egyptian amulets, gold jewellery and bronze mirrors. In 1963 a pit with votive offerings of the classical and Ptolemaic periods was found at the north-east edge of the town, among them stone statuettes and a group of the three-faced Hekate. It was the pit in which the old offerings of a nearby sanctuary were buried. In the Ptolemaic and Roman periods the people of Keryneia cut chamber tombs into the soft rock around the town. One of them, in the courtyard of the Dome hotel, held two clay sarcophagi. Tomb 34, in the centre of the town, had places for twelve sarcophagi and was used for centuries: a coin of the emperor Herakleios shows that burials took place there until the 7th century AD. The finds were kept in the Keryneia Museum, inside the castle. Since 1974 it is not known where they are.⁵

In 1950–1954 the Department of Antiquities investigated the building phases of the castle. In the oldest of its three successive south walls a tower with a cistern was found, older than the known medieval Greek parts. Built into the west wall of the medieval Greek fortress was found the Greek funerary inscription of a certain Charmos, of the Roman period, and on the shore east of the castle a postern in the outer fortifications of the Frankish period.⁶

In 1965 a diver from Keryneia located, about one kilometre off the coast, at a depth of almost 30 metres, the wreck of a Greek merchant ship that sank around 300 BC. Archaeologists of the University of Pennsylvania excavated it in 1968–69. Its cargo was about 400 amphorae, mostly Rhodian and a few Samian, almonds and millstones. The ship’s utensils point to a crew of four. The hull, about 14 metres long, was reassembled from its original timbers and displayed in Keryneia castle. It is one of the best-preserved ancient ships in the world. Two faithful replicas of it were also built, and they went to sea. “Kyrenia II” was launched in 1985 and in 1986 sailed to Cyprus. “Kyrenia Eleftheria” was launched in 2002 and in 2004 sailed from Amathous, by way of Rhodes and the Aegean islands, to Piraeus.⁷

The site of the ancient town, the castle with its moat, part of the fortifications of the town and harbour, and a rock-cut tomb are declared Ancient Monuments.

Antiquity

Many traces of pre-Greek habitation survive around Keryneia. In the ancient Greek period Keryneia was one of the Greek kingdoms of Cyprus. According to Diodorus, in 315 BC the kings of Kition, Lapithos, Marion and Keryneia allied themselves with Antigonos, and Seleukos, Ptolemy’s ally, took Keryneia and Lapithos. In 312 BC Ptolemy arrested Praxippos, king of Lapithos, and the ruler of Keryneia, whose name has not survived.⁸

In excavations of 1910–1911 at Riatiko, in Pano Keryneia, the remains of public buildings and a temple were found, together with clay and stone statuettes of priests and priestesses of the 6th to the 3rd century BC. The historian Ieronymos Peristianis, who examined the site, concluded that the public buildings of the ancient town and the temple of Aphrodite stood there. At the same spot a statuette base was found with an inscription of the 5th or 4th century BC in the Cypriot Greek syllabic script: «Ἄκης κατέθηκε ἰ(ν) τύχα», that is “Akes dedicated this for good fortune”. Two syllabic dedications to the Paphian goddess, Aphrodite, also come from Keryneia. One reads «Τᾶς θεῶ ἠμὶ τᾶς Παφίας» (“I belong to the Paphian goddess”), while the other records that Akestothemis dedicated it.⁹

Ptolemaic Greek (“Hellenistic”) period

Keryneia remained a flourishing Greek city. A large inscription from Delphi, of around 230 BC, records with which citizens of each Greek city the sacred envoys of Apollo’s oracle were hosted. Keryneia is mentioned among the cities of Cyprus. The town’s links with the Aegean are also shown by the wreck of a Greek merchant ship that sank outside its harbour at the beginning of the period, laden with amphorae from Rhodes and Samos.¹⁰

Roman period

The inscriptions of Keryneia from the Roman period are written in Greek, the language of Cyprus and of the whole eastern Mediterranean in the years of Rome. The Roman officials themselves also wrote in Greek. An inscription of AD 43, kept in the Cyprus Museum, records that the Roman proconsul of Cyprus Titus Cominius Proclus and his assistant brought water to the town from a spring below the cliffs of Agios Ilarion:¹¹

ἐπὶ Αὐτοκράτορος Τιβερίου Κλαυδίου Καίσαρος Σεβαστοῦ Γερμανικοῦ ἔτους τρίτου Τίτος Κομίνιος Πρόκλος [ἀ]νθύπατος … [εἰσήγα]γαν ὕδωρ τὸ [ἐκρέον ἐκ] τῆς ἐν Λίμναις [πηγῆς]

“In the third year of the emperor Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, the proconsul Titus Cominius Proclus … brought the water that flows from the spring at Limnai.”

The town was a self-governing demos. A pedestal found in 1898 at Riatiko, where according to Peristianis the town’s agora stood, honours a local benefactor, a Roman citizen with a Greek name:¹²

Τι(βέριον) Κλαύδιον Τι(βερίου) Κλαυδίου Αἰνείου υἱὸν Κυρείνᾳ Αἰνέαν ὁ Κερυνητῶν δῆμος τὸν ἴδιον εὐεργέτην τιμῆς χάριν.

“Tiberius Claudius Aineas, son of Tiberius Claudius Aineias, of the tribe Quirina: the people of the Kerynians, to honour their benefactor.”

Also in Greek is the oath of loyalty that the Cypriots swore to the emperor Tiberius when he came to the throne in AD 14. The marble slab was found at Nikokleia, near Palaipafos. The Cypriots swear by their own gods, among them the Apollo of Keryneia:¹³

[νὴ τ]ὴ̣ν ἡμετέραν Ἀκραίαν Ἀφροδίτην κα[ὶ] τὴ̣[ν ἡμ]ετέραν Κόρην καὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον Ὑλάτη[ν Ἀπόλλ]ω καὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον Κε[ρ]υν̣ή̣την Ἀ̣πόλλω … καὶ θεοὺς θεάς τε τοὺ[ς] κοινοὺς τῆς νήσου πατρῴους …

“By our Aphrodite Akraia and our Kore and our Apollo Hylates and our Apollo of Keryneia … and the gods and goddesses who are common and ancestral gods of the island …”

Greek medieval period (“Byzantium”)

At the beginning of the 4th century the Christians of Keryneia already had a bishop, Theodotos, at a time when their faith was still persecuted. His story survives in the Menologion, the lives of the saints of the Orthodox Church, and is preserved by the 18th-century French church historian Michel Le Quien. When the emperor Licinius renewed the persecution of the Christians in the eastern part of the empire, Theodotos was brought before the Roman governor of Cyprus, Sabinus, tortured and thrown into prison. When Constantine the Great defeated Licinius and ended the persecution, Theodotos was freed by his decree and died in peace two years later. The Church honours him as a hieromartyr, that is a cleric who suffered for his faith. The Greek geographer Hierokles (6th century) and George of Cyprus, who at the beginning of the 7th century wrote a list of the cities of the empire, count Keryneia among the cities of the island. East of the castle, at Chrysokava, the ancient quarries became a Christian cemetery, and in one of the town’s tombs burials continued until the 7th century.¹⁴

In the middle medieval Greek period the church of Agios Georgios was built beside the castle. The castle played a leading part at critical moments in the history of the island. Anna Komnene writes that when the governor of Cyprus Rhapsomates revolted, the general John Doukas first took Keryneia by storm, in 1092. In 1191, when Richard of England invaded Cyprus, the daughter of Isaac Komnenos had taken refuge, according to an English chronicler of the time, in a “very strong castle” called Cherin, that is the castle of Keryneia.¹⁵

Frankish and Venetian rule

In the years of Frankish rule the foreign rulers of the island enlarged the castle and surrounded the town with walls. The castle withstood many sieges in their wars, among them the siege by the Genoese in 1373–74.

The Venetians rebuilt the castle to withstand artillery. In 1570, however, after the fall of Lefkosia, its Venetian commanders surrendered it to the Turks without a fight.¹⁶

Turkish rule

In the years of Turkish rule the town declined. The Flemish traveller de Stochove, who passed through Keryneia in 1631, writes that it had once been one of the finest towns of the island, but was by then almost deserted. He also notes that most of its inhabitants were Greeks and that the Turks withdrew into the castle at night. Many people of Keryneia lived in Pano Keryneia, Riatiko, and in the surrounding villages. In the Ottoman land survey of 1832/33, which recorded only those who owned property, Keryneia is recorded as a town of mixed population with 109 households with property.¹⁷

When the Greek Revolution of 1821 broke out, the Turkish governor of Cyprus, on the pretext that the Greeks of the island were preparing an uprising, disarmed them and on 9 July executed in Lefkosia Archbishop Kyprianos, the bishops and many notables. Among them was Metropolitan Lavrentios of Kyrenia, who according to the Municipality of Keryneia was arrested at Panagia Chrysopolitissa.¹⁸

In the 19th century the town grew again thanks to trade with the opposite coast of Asia Minor. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, many Greeks from the surrounding villages, such as Lapithos, Karavas, Belapais and Karmi, settled in it at that time.¹⁹

British rule

In the years of British rule the road to Lefkosia was opened and the harbour was laid out. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the harbour works were carried out in 1886–1891, when the lighthouse was also built. In 1893 a hospital was built with contributions from the inhabitants.²⁰

The Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922 cut off the town’s trade with the Greeks of Asia Minor, and many people of Keryneia emigrated to Egypt and America. In the same year the seat of the Metropolis of Kyrenia returned to the town. Keryneia then turned to tourism. Kostas Katsellis of Keryneia, who had returned from America, built its first modern hotels, the Seaview in 1922 and the Dome in 1932, while the town became the summer resort of the people of Lefkosia.²¹

Churches and monasteries

The great church of the town was the Archangel Michael, the metropolitan church, built around 1860 on the rock of the harbour. The parish church of Pano Keryneia was Agios Georgios, which its inhabitants began to build in 1917. Panagia Chrysopolitissa, the old cathedral, dates from the 16th century and was renovated in 1783. The inscription on its iconostasis recorded that the icons were made with the contributions of the inhabitants.²²

The rock-cut chapel of Agia Mavra at Chrysokava is a declared Ancient Monument. It was shaped inside one of the tombs of the Christian cemetery and had wall paintings of the 10th century. In the same area stands Agia Aikaterini of Chrysokava, of the 16th century. The rock-cut tombs of Chrysokava, carved with crosses, are the oldest Christian remains in the district. Agios Georgios beside the castle, of the 10th–11th century, now lies within its walls. Its dome rested on four marble columns with older capitals.²³

The town also had the churches of Agia Varvara and Agios Grigorios and the chapels of Panagia Glykiotissa on the west coast (15th–16th century), of Agios Dimitrios, of Agios Stefanos and of Agios Georgios o Theologos, in the cemetery.²⁴

Economy and society

The life of the town rested on the harbour, on trade and, from the 20th century, on tourism. Two of the main products of the area, carobs and lemons, had their own co-operative unions based in the town, the Co-operative Carob Marketing Union (1946) and the Co-operative Lemon Growers’ Union (1962). There were also a consumers’ co-operative society (1947) and a co-operative credit society (1961). According to the Municipality of Keryneia, in the 1960s the Ports Authority laid out the harbour, and 12 new hotels were built within the municipal boundaries.²⁵

Education

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1845 Father Charalambos Oikonomos taught in his house, and in 1870 the first Greek elementary school opened. In 1912 the building of the “Severeio” elementary school, a gift of Dimosthenis Severis, was inaugurated. In 1918 the first classes of the Higher Greek School opened, which developed into the Greek Gymnasium of Keryneia. In the school year 1973–74 the Greek elementary school had 338 pupils and 10 teachers, and the kindergarten 49 children and 2 kindergarten teachers. The town also had a Greek gymnasium, a commercial school and a school for children with special needs.²⁶

Population

In 1931 the town had 2,049 inhabitants, 1,557 Christians and 492 Muslims, and in 1946 2,916, of whom 2,204 were Orthodox, 572 Muslims and 140 others (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 3,498 inhabitants, of whom 2,373 were Greeks, and in 1973 the Greeks numbered 2,892. Keryneia had a mixed population: in 1960 there also lived in it 696 Turks, 233 English, 30 Armenians and 9 Maronites. In 1973 the Turks were reckoned at about 1,000 (an estimate).

Municipality

According to the Municipality of Keryneia, the Ottoman law in force before British rule laid down that mayors had to be Ottomans, even though most of the inhabitants were Greeks. The first known Greek mayor, the merchant shipowner Dimitrios Michailidis, was dismissed because of this law. From 1882 the municipal council was elected. Under the mayoralty of Charilaos Dimitriadis (1917–1935) the municipal market and municipal offices, municipal sea baths and a slaughterhouse were built, the water supply was improved and the town acquired electric lighting. After the uprising of October 1931 the mayor refused to raise the English flag on the town hall, and in 1935 the British removed him. He was re-elected in 1943 and remained mayor until 1962. The new town hall was completed in 1970. After the invasion the Municipality of Keryneia was housed in the town hall of Lemesos, and today it operates temporarily in Lefkosia.²⁷

National struggles

In the 1950 Enosis plebiscite 1,192 inhabitants signed in the two parishes of the town, of the Archangel and of Agios Georgios. Metropolitan Kyprianos of Kyrenia was exiled by the British to the Seychelles together with Archbishop Makarios.²⁸

The Register of EOKA Fighters records 100 Greek inhabitants of the town who took part in or supported the Struggle. In the EOKA struggle the castle was used to detain fighters without trial, and in 1955 Markos Drakos and other fighters escaped from it. At Keryneia, where he worked, the fighter Charalambos Pettemeridis from Kannavia joined EOKA. From 1956 the EOKA sector commander for the district of Keryneia was Kyriakos Matsis, until his death at Dikomo in November 1958.²⁹

The Turkish invasion of 1974

On 20 July 1974 the Turkish army landed at Pente Mili, west of Keryneia. On 22 July, despite the ceasefire agreement, it entered the town and captured it. The Greek population was subjected to ethnic cleansing. About 350 people of Keryneia, who had taken refuge in the Dome hotel while it was under UN protection, were held there in confinement. After 14 August 1974, when the Turkish army forced the UN force to withdraw, the hotel was guarded on the orders of a Turkish commander. The European Commission of Human Rights found that their confinement violated their right to liberty.³⁰ By June 1975, 53 remained. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, those who remained were later moved to Belapais, and in 1979 11 Greeks lived in Keryneia, and in 1985 six.³¹ By the early 1990s three or four were left.³² Since then the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent the inhabitants’ return. In 1996 the European Court of Human Rights found in favour of Titina Loizidou of Keryneia against Turkey over the deprivation of her property in the town.³³

Thirty-three people of Keryneia, 13 of them civilians and 20 soldiers, were recorded as missing. The remains of 17 have been located and identified, while 16 are still missing, among them civilians arrested in the town in August 1974. Ten were lost inside the town, 6 at the Keryneia Police Station and 17 elsewhere: at Sichari (7), in the Kazafani area (4), at Trimithi, at Agios Georgios of Keryneia, in the Belapais area, at Neo Chorio of Kythrea, at Templos and in the Keryneia–Agios Ilarion area. Four more people of Keryneia were killed elsewhere: three soldiers and one civilian, at Sichari (2), at Trimithi and at Agios Epiktitos. In Keryneia itself 27 dead of 1974 are recorded: 20 soldiers, killed in the fighting at Pente Mili, Pikro Nero, Glykiotissa, the harbour and inside the town, and 7 civilians.

The occupation authorities illegally converted the church of the Archangel Michael into a museum, and Agia Varvara and Panagia Glykiotissa into mosques. Agia Mavra and Agia Aikaterini of Chrysokava lie inside a Turkish military camp. Panagia Chrysopolitissa was desecrated and looted, and its roof has collapsed. Agios Georgios beside the castle, Agios Dimitrios and Agios Georgios o Theologos were also desecrated and looted.