Trachonas is a large, mainly Greek suburb of Lefkosia, in the occupied part of the district of Lefkosia. It lies 3 kilometres north-west of Lefkosia, at an altitude of 130 metres, a little south of the Pediaios river, which passes through its land.¹ From 1968 it was part of the Municipality of Lefkosia.² In the 1960 census it had 3,580 inhabitants, of whom 2,316 were Greeks and 921 Turks.

Name

The 15th-century Cypriot chronicler Leontios Machairas writes the name «Τράχονας», and Georgios Boustronios, a Cypriot chronicler of the late 15th century, speaks of the «κάμπον τοῦ Τραχόνου» (“the plain of Trachonas”). The 16th-century Cypriot chronicler Florio Bustron writes it “Trachona”.³

Founding and first records

The first known written mention of Trachonas is by Machairas, in the events of 1373. It was then a village outside the walls, to the north of Lefkosia.⁴ According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the settlement first grew up around the church of the Panagia and from there gradually spread.⁵

Frankish rule

In December 1373, when the Genoese, who had taken Ammochostos, were also inside Lefkosia and were looting houses, villagers from Trachonas and from Voni rose against them, according to Machairas. They chased them through the town, and a great battle followed between the bridge of Pylliri and the bridge of the Holy Apostles:

Καὶ ἄλλοι λᾶς ἐσηκώθησαν ἀπὸ τὸν Τράχοναν καὶ ἀπὸ τὸ Σημηντῆριν καὶ οἱ Βονιάτες καὶ ἐκαταδίωξάν τους καὶ ἀρχέψαν νὰ κουρσεύσου ὡς τὸ γειοφύριν τῆς Πυλληρῆς…

That is: “And other people rose from Trachonas and from Simintiri, and the men of Voni, and they pursued them and began to plunder as far as the bridge of Pylliri…”.⁶

Machairas also mentions an opening in the wall of Lefkosia, with a wooden channel (choletra) for water, on the side towards Trachonas. In the same war a young villager, Dimitris, used to slip out of the town secretly from there, carrying messages to Keryneia, and through it foot soldiers opposed to the Genoese later entered Lefkosia.⁷

In the 1460s King James II gave Trachonas as a fief, together with two more villages, to Pero Zerbas, whom Florio Bustron calls “signor de Suna”.⁸ Shortly after James’s death, in the troubles of 1473, the lords of Lefkosia with their horsemen and foot soldiers gathered, according to Georgios Boustronios, in the plain of Trachonas, and from there organised the night watch.⁹

Turkish rule

In the land survey carried out by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who owned property, Trachonas belonged to the administrative district of Kythrea and had 22 households with property, Christian and Muslim. The holdings were mainly fields, among them a cotton field, with 202 olive trees, and the livestock more than 1,100 sheep and goats and 13 oxen.¹⁰

Churches and monasteries

The Greek Orthodox church of Trachonas, at the northern edge of the old centre of the settlement, is dedicated to the Panagia. It was built on the site of an older, medieval church, also dedicated to the Panagia.¹¹ The 2009 list of occupied churches of the Church of Cyprus dates it to the 19th century. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the icon of the Panagia of Trachonas was considered miraculous.¹²

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 cereals, fodder crops, a few citrus and very few vegetables were grown on the land of Trachonas, while in its northern part there were considerable barren areas. Most of the working inhabitants, however, worked in the town of Lefkosia.¹³ In 1945 the Trachonas Co-operative Credit Society was founded.

Population

Trachonas was a small village until the middle of the 20th century and grew sharply with the expansion of Lefkosia. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, it had 179 inhabitants in 1881, 172 in 1891, 228 in 1901, 256 in 1911 and 303 in 1921.¹⁴ In 1931 it had 402 inhabitants, 398 Christians and 4 Muslims, and in 1946 706, of whom 655 were Orthodox, 35 Muslims and 16 others (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). By 1960 the population had grown fivefold: the census of that year recorded 3,580 inhabitants, 2,316 Greeks, 921 Turks, 239 Armenians, 86 English, 7 Maronites and 11 others. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, with the Turkish insurrection of 1963–64 some of the Greek inhabitants of Trachonas were driven out.¹⁵ In 1973 Trachonas had 1,891 Greeks.

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the great growth was due to urbanisation and to people from the countryside settling in the suburb. Before 1974 its houses reached to the west as far as Agios Ilarionos Avenue, to the north as far as the Pediaios, and to the south as far as Evagora Pallikaridi and Michalaki Karaoli streets, which separated it from the town.¹⁶

National struggles

In the 1950 Enosis plebiscite 967 inhabitants of Trachonas signed, practically all the adult Greek inhabitants. The Register of EOKA Fighters records 8 Greek inhabitants of Trachonas who took part in or supported the Struggle.

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Trachonas 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 inhabitants’ return.

Eleven inhabitants of Trachonas, nine soldiers and two civilians, were recorded as missing. The remains of seven have been identified; the other four are still missing. Six were lost in Trachonas itself; the other five in the area of Kato Deryneia, on the old Lefkosia–Ammochostos road, at Voni, at Neapoli in Lefkosia and in the area of Koutsoventis. One more inhabitant, a civilian, was killed in the area of Mia Milia. Five dead of 1974 are recorded on the land of Trachonas, three soldiers and two civilians, who were killed or fatally wounded in the suburb and its area; one of them died of his wounds at the Lefkosia General Hospital.

The occupation authorities illegally converted the church of the Panagia into a cultural centre; the crosses and all the furnishings of the church were removed. The Greek cemetery, north of the church, was completely levelled in road works. The refugees of Trachonas built at Strovolos, in the free areas, a replica of their church, the Panagia of Trachonas.¹⁷