Variseia is a small Greek community of the district of Lefkosia. It lies 23 kilometres west of Morfou, at an altitude of 260 metres, in the geographical region of Tillyria. Its land reaches south as far as the Pafos forest.¹ In the 1960 census it had 223 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.

Name

The origin of the name is not known. On the map of Cyprus by the British officer Horatio Kitchener, in the first years of British rule, the village is written “Varisha”, and the censuses of British rule also write it in this form.²

Founding and first records

Variseia was not found in the 15th-century lists of fiefs and royal villages preserved by the 16th-century Cypriot chronicler Florio Bustron and the 19th-century French historian Louis de Mas Latrie. Its first certain written mention is in the land survey of 1832/33.³ In the 1931 census a small settlement on its land, the Mandres of Variseia (Varisha Mandres), is recorded separately from the village.

Turkish rule

The land survey carried out by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who owned property, records Variseia as a Muslim village of the district of Lefka, with 10 households with property. Their land was mainly dry fields, recorded as uncultivated, and a few threshing floors, and they had 21 olive trees and 4 fig trees. The greater part of their property was livestock: 224 goats, a few cows and two oxen.⁴

Churches and monasteries

The Greek Orthodox church of Variseia is dedicated to Saint George and dates from the 19th or 20th century.⁵

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 the inhabitants grew cereals and a few vines, and had olive, carob, almond and fig trees, while considerable areas remained uncultivated. They kept goats, as already in the 1832/33 survey. According to the same encyclopaedia, the population of the village grew because it was close to the mining installations of Xeros, to the mine of the Cyprus Mines Corporation and to the fertile area of Morfou.⁶ From 1960 the Variseia Co-operative Credit Society operated in the village.

Education

In the school year 1973–74 the Greek elementary school of Variseia had 39 pupils and two teachers.

Population

The population of Variseia grew steadily in the 20th century. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 75 inhabitants in 1881, 60 in 1891, 76 in 1901, 84 in 1911 and 94 in 1921.⁷ In 1931 the village had 128 inhabitants, 122 Christians and 6 Muslims, and the Mandres of Variseia another 44, 41 Christians and 3 Muslims. In 1946 Variseia had 174 inhabitants, of whom 172 were Orthodox and 2 Muslims (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 223 inhabitants, all Greeks, and in 1973 244 Greeks.

National struggles

In the 1950 Enosis plebiscite 99 inhabitants of Variseia signed. The Register of EOKA Fighters records 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 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.

The church of Agios Georgios also lies within the buffer zone.

---

1. A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, p. 973.↩︎

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

3. Florio Bustron, Chronique de l’île de Chypre, ed. R. de Mas Latrie (1886); L. de Mas Latrie, Histoire de l’île de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, vol. 3 (1852–1861).↩︎

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

5. A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, p. 40.↩︎

6. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Βαρίσεια».↩︎

7. Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Βαρίσεια».↩︎

Sources (13)

• Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia (Polignosi), «Βαρίσεια» (πληθυσμός 1881–1921)
• The 1832/33 Ottoman Property Survey of Cyprus (Harokopio University, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation), «Variseia» (District of Lefka· κατά τον χάρτη του Kitchener «Varisha»)
• Florio Bustron, Chronique de l’île de Chypre, ed. R. de Mas Latrie (1886), κατάλογοι φέουδων 1468: η Βαρίσεια δεν αναφέρεται
• L. de Mas Latrie, Histoire de l’île de Chypre sous le règne des princes de la maison de Lusignan, vol. 3 (1852–1861), «Villages du domaine royal»: η Βαρίσεια δεν αναφέρεται
• A Complete Gazetteer of Cyprus, vol. 1, τ. 1: Άγιος Γεώργιος, εκκλησία (σ. 40), Άγιος Μάμας, εκκλησία (σ. 59), Βαρίσεια (σ. 225), δάσος Πάφου (σ. 973)
• Statistical Service of Cyprus, Classification System of Municipalities, Communities and Quarters of Cyprus (GEOCODES), κωδ. 1450 Βαρίσεια (**: εν μέρει στην κατεχόμενη περιοχή)
• Church of Cyprus, list of churches in the occupied areas (2009)
• Register of Cooperative Societies, 0005/1960
• State Archives of Cyprus, E19/46 (schools 1973–74), Ελληνικό Δημοτικό Σχολείο Βαρίσειας
• Statistical Service of Cyprus, censuses, 1931, 1946, 1960, 1973
• Ethnarchy of Cyprus, announcement of the Enosis plebiscite results by village, 27.1.1950, «Βαρίσια 99»
• Register of EOKA Fighters 1955-1959 (SIMAE, 2004), Βαρίσεια (1)
• Union of Occupied Communities of Lefkosia District (nicosiaoccupiedcommunities.org), «Βαρισεία» (μόνο στοιχεία κοινοτικού συμβουλίου)