Ayios Loukas (St. Luke) is a Neighbourhood, Quarter,

Mahalla is an Arabic word variously translated as district, Quarter (country subdivision), quarter, Ward (country subdivision), ward, or neighborhood in many parts of the Arab world, the Balkans, Western Asia, the Indian subcontinent, and nearby nations. ...

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

Coexistence in the Disappeared Mixed Neighbourhoods of Nicosia by Ahmet An (Paper read at the conference: Nicosia: The Last Divided Capital in Europe, organized by the London Metropolitan University on 20th June 2011) and the parish church thereof. The church was dedicated to and named after

St. Luke Luke the Evangelist was one of the Four Evangelists—the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical gospels. The Early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. Prominent figu ...

the Apostle and the parish or neighbourhood was named after the church. It is Άγιος Λουκάς in Greek and Ayluka or the new name Ayyıldız (Neighbourhood only"1960 Sonrası Lefkoşa Konut Alanlarının Gelişimi", by Hasan Zafersoy, pub. Near Eastern University, Nicosia 2011. Figure 12 "Old and new names of some neighbourhoods of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Local Government Land Registry and Cadastral Authority".(page 51)) in Turkish. At the last Census (2011) it had a population of 489. The population in 1946 was 806,Census of Cyprus, 1946 consisting of 263 Greek Cypriots, 536 Turkish Cypriots and 7 others. Many Greek Cypriots formerly lived in this Neighbourhood around the church of Ayios Loukas, until the first inter-communal clashes in Nicosia in 1956. Each year, 18 October was the day of festivity in the name of St.Luke and the parishioners staged what was the most famous fair ( Panayiri) within the walls of Nicosia. A four-day and four-night fair was organised annually in honour of St. Luke, during which local products and seasonal fresh fruits and dried fruits, almonds and walnuts were sold, together with shamishi and

Loukoumades Lokma is a dessert made of leavened and deep fried dough balls, soaked in syrup or honey, sometimes coated with cinnamon or other ingredients. The dish was described as early as the 13th century by al-Baghdadi as ''luqmat al-qādi'' (), "judge ...

, etc. However, following the 1956

EOKA The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA ; ) was a Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organization that fought a campaign for the end of Cyprus#Cyprus under the British Empire, British rule in Cyprus, and for enosis, eventual union with K ...

and later TMT activities, the Greek Cypriot inhabitants of the Ayios Loukas neighbourhood were terrorised into leaving and also the church was evacuated.

Mukhtar A mukhtar (; ) is a village chief in the Levant: "an old institution that goes back to the time of the Ottoman rule". According to Amir S. Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, the mukhtar "for centuries were the central figures". They "were ...

i: Ayla Talik. 　

History

Ayios Loukas is one of the 24 historic Neighbourhoods of Nicosia within the walls. During the Ottoman period it was accounted as one of the Greek

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Quarters of Nicosia. However, all the adjacent Neighbourhoods, such as Yeni Jami and Ak Kavuk (Abu Kavuk), were overwhelmingly

moslem Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraham (or ''Allah'') as it ...

in character. By 1946 the Greek Orthodox population had dropped to 33%. The population of Ayios Loukas during British rule in Cyprus was as follows: There was a minor change to the Neighbourhood boundaries in 1912. Cyprus Gazette, 6 Dec 1912, No. 11541 The church was built in 1758, in dressed limestone, when Philotheos was Archbishop of Cyprus. This date appears in the list of Orthodox churches enumerated by Kyprianos in 1780."A history of the Orthodox church of Cyprus" by John Hackett, pub. Methuen & co.,London 1901 (p. 273) Nikozja loukas

Church

The present building evidently occupies the site of a mediaeval church of which the north and west walls still exist. The north and west doorways are of mediaeval style."A Description of the Historic Monuments of Cyprus" by George Jeffery,Architect .Publ. Government Printing Office, Nicosia, 1918. The plan of the building is a double

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

divided by a row of circular columns supporting pointed arches and cross vaulting, the north aisle is somewhat narrower than the south. The windows are square headed with corbel supports to the lintel. On the south side of the church is an unfinished

cloister A cloister (from Latin , "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open Arcade (architecture), arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle (architecture), quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cat ...

of the 18th century. Before 1956, the church interior had an

iconostasis In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis () is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a Church (building), church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere withi ...

which was a florid wood carving painted brown and, in the gynaiketis (women's gallery), there were a large collection of disused

icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, saints, and angels. Although especially ...

with the former

Rood A rood or rood cross, sometimes known as a triumphal cross, is a cross or crucifix, especially the large crucifix set above the entrance to the chancel of a medieval church. Alternatively, it is a large sculpture or painting of the crucifixio ...

of the church dated 1692. Amongst these icons was a curious processional picture painted on both sides measuring about 75 cm. x 50 cm. and mounted on a pole. On one side was the Panayia, on the other a representation of the

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

. The church remained in ruins after the parishioners were forced to leave the area, until it was restored in 1986 and it was allocated to the Turkish Cypriot Folklore Association (HASDER). ''The map shows the Neighbourhood or Quarter of Ayios Loukas, with the church centrally placed in its borders. Just outside the border to the west lies the mosque of Ak Kavuk or Abu Kavuk, in the adjacent Neighbourhood or Quarter of that name. To the north-east is the Loredano (Cevizli) Bastion, on the Venetian walls of Nicosia . Borders as at c. 1900''.

References

{{Quarters of North Nicosia Neighbourhoods of Nicosia