The Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme have announced an acceleration on small-scale heritage sites protection activities islandwide.
The Small Project Activities (SPA) initiative focus on grass-roots, low-cost interventions on monuments requiring simple, small-scale works capable of producing early results and bringing local communities closer to the work of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage.
Examples of Small Project Activities are: internal and external site cleaning, removal of vegetation from roofs and walls, minor repairs, replacement of doors, fences and windows to heritage sites.
Launched in 2012 as an independent initiative of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, the SPA projects was later included under the EU funded and UNDP implemented programme “Support to Monuments of Great Importance for the Communities of Cyprus” with an overall budget allocation of 45,000 EUR.
Under the previous phase, 10 projects were completed with funding from several donors including, among others, the Mosques of Kotsiati/Koççat, Akaki and Orounda/Orunda, the Mescits in the Walled City of Nicosia Tophane and Tabakhane and the Chapel of Ayios Mikallos in Akanthou/ Tatlısu.
Under the current, EU-funded phase, four SPA projects have been already completed:
Agios Andonios in Masari / Sahinler
Agios Demetrios in Leonarisso/Ziyamet
Archangelos Michael in Aigialousa/Yenierenköy
Agios Thereseon (Therapon) in Angastina/Aslanköy
Six that are ongoing or about to start:
Agios Andonios in Kythrea / Değirmenlik
Agios Charalambos in Akanthou/Tatlısu
Agios Sozomenos in Davlos/Kaplıca
Arnavut mosque in Limassol
Koprulu mosque in Limassol
Mathiatis / Matyat mosque in Nicosia District.
The recent initiatives in Limassol (Arnavut Mosque and Koprülü Mosque) introduce a closer communication with Limassol Municipality which all partners on this programme will endeavour to develop further.
SPA projects, depending on the location, are implemented by local communities, relevant bodies and by the EVKAF Administration in partnership with UNDP and the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage.
