Koroveia Κορόβεια

Ammochostos District

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History

Koroveia is a Turkish community in the occupied district of Ammochostos, in the Karpasia. It lies 53 kilometres northeast of Ammochostos, at an elevation of 80 metres, and its land reaches south to the sea.1 There, near the coast, stands the pre-Greek fort of Nitovikla. In the 1960 census it had 297 inhabitants, of whom 280 were Turks.

Name

The official gazetteer of Cyprus (Gazetteer) writes the name “Κορόβεια, η” (Koroveia).2 At the end of the 15th century the village is written “Corovia” in a Venetian list of the royal villages published by the 19th-century French historian Louis de Mas Latrie.3 Kitchener’s British map of 1885 and the 1931 census write it “Korovia”.4

Archaeological sites

In 1929 the Swedish Cyprus Expedition excavated Nitovikla, a fortified plateau near the coast, about 400 metres long, with a single gate, a well and a small walled cemetery. In its south-western corner stood a fort with massive walls and an entrance between two towers, in one of which a cistern 7.4 metres deep was cut into the rock. The fort was destroyed, rebuilt on the same plan and destroyed again by fire. It belongs to the pre-Greek period, and according to later studies its corners are the earliest known example of ashlar masonry in Cyprus.5 The site and the remains of the fort are an Ancient Monument in the Register of Ancient Monuments of the Department of Antiquities.6

In the same year the Expedition investigated, at Palion Skoutelli, a cemetery of about twenty tumuli of the same period. Of the seven excavated, the largest, 22 metres long and 3 metres high, covered a chamber with 14 burials and more than a hundred objects, mostly pottery and bronze ornaments. Beneath other tumuli rock-cut pits with ash and animal bones were found, which the excavators interpreted as places of cult for the dead.7

On the coast south of the village, around the ruined church of Agia Varvara, the English archaeologist David Hogarth, who toured the Karpasia in 1888, found the ruins of a large ancient settlement, extending for half a mile west of the church, with a knoll that appeared to have been its citadel. He saw large blocks of stone, a built water channel, olive-press stones and coarse pottery, while in a house at Koroveia a life-size stone head with a curly beard, found there, was kept. He also assigned the rock-cut tombs of Galinoporni to this settlement.8

Venetian rule

In the same Venetian list Koroveia belonged to the royal domain, in the bailiwick of Karpasia, together with neighbouring Inner Galinoporni and Galateia.9

Turkish rule

In the property survey carried out by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who owned property, Koroveia is recorded as a Muslim village, with 26 property-owning households. The owners had cotton fields, a few grain fields and threshing floors, while most of their land lay fallow. They had ten mulberry trees, six olive trees and two fig trees, more than 230 sheep, oxen, mules and four mills turned by horses.10

British rule

Hogarth notes that the Muslim inhabitants of the central villages of the Karpasia, Agios Andronikos, Elisis, Koroveia and Galinoporni, spoke Greek and hardly knew any Turkish.11

Churches and monasteries

Agia Varvara, on the coast south of the village, was already a ruin when Hogarth saw it: a church with a double apse, built with material from the ruins of the ancient settlement.12 The 2009 list of churches in the occupied areas of the Church of Cyprus records it as a ruined chapel of the 8th century, that is, of the Greek medieval period of the Arab raids.

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 mainly cereals and fodder crops were grown in the village, while much of its land was state forest. In 1973, 55 stock-breeders kept 2,501 sheep, 586 goats and 2,683 poultry.13

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, Koroveia had 248 inhabitants in 1881, 136 in 1891, 273 in 1901, 281 in 1911 and 213 in 1921.14 In 1931 it had 211 inhabitants, 192 Muslims and 19 Christians, and in 1946 263, of whom 261 were Muslims and 2 Orthodox (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 297 inhabitants, 280 Turks and 17 Gypsies, and in 1973 around 300 Turkish inhabitants (estimate).

  1. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Κορόβεια».↩︎

  2. A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, p. 613.↩︎

  3. L. de Mas Latrie, Histoire de l’île de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, vol. 3 (1852–1861), p. 508.↩︎

  4. The 1832/33 Ottoman Property Survey of Cyprus (Harokopio University, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation), «Koroveia» (accessed 3.11.2026).↩︎

  5. Ancient Cyprus (ancientcyprus.com), register of excavations and surveys, «Korovia-Nitovikla: Swedish Cyprus Expedition» (accessed 1.11.2026).↩︎

  6. Department of Antiquities, Register of Ancient Monuments (May 2025).↩︎

  7. Ancient Cyprus (ancientcyprus.com), register of excavations and surveys, «Korovia-Palaeoskoutella: Swedish Cyprus Expedition» (accessed 1.11.2026); A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, p. 938.↩︎

  8. D. G. Hogarth, Devia Cypria (London 1889), pp. 77–78.↩︎

  9. L. de Mas Latrie, Histoire de l’île de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, vol. 3 (1852–1861), p. 508.↩︎

  10. The 1832/33 Ottoman Property Survey of Cyprus (Harokopio University, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation), «Koroveia» (accessed 3.11.2026).↩︎

  11. D. G. Hogarth, Devia Cypria (London 1889), p. 54.↩︎

  12. D. G. Hogarth, Devia Cypria (London 1889), pp. 77–78.↩︎

  13. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Κορόβεια».↩︎

  14. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Κορόβεια».↩︎

Sources (10)

Churches, Chapels & Cemeteries

Koroveia had one chapel. Since the Turkish invasion of 1974 they have been under occupation. Each is shown below, with photographs and, where known, its condition.

Chapels (1)

Agia Barbara

According to the Church of Cyprus list of churches in the occupied areas (2009), the chapel dates from the 8th century and was ruined.

Other Information

Postal Code

The Cyprus Post postal code for this community was and is 5875.