Maronas Time Warp

[Dominic]

A new member of our chat group, Tommy Nilsson, was stationed with the UN in Cyprus in 1964. Fortunately for us he liked taking pictures, and he has been sharing them. One picture caught my eye, as it showed the now abandoned village of Maronas as it used to look. I decided to revisit it to get a comparison shot...

Read the article and chat about it below...
 

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[cyprusmax47]

Interesting to compare the photos. Cyprus looks much more green now.

I strongly believe that the bridge is Roudia and repaired in the meantime. I can recognize the mountains in the background which were in the past not covered from dense vegetation.


and also I think that I can remember huge poplar trees on the left hand side of the old photo, which are still existing there, near the abandoned house.

Max

[Dominic]

No, look at the far left of the picture. The rocks there are too close to the bridge for it to be Roudia.

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[Ams]

Thanks Dominic, it's been interesting to see the comparison between then and now.

I am fascinated by that bridge though - I'd love to know where it is. I took quite a few photos of Roudia recently, I had a look at them angle isn't right or there are too many trees to see far into the background.

If it is Roudia it's a little disappointing to know that most of the bridge hump had been destroyed and was rebuilt. When I walk across these bridges I like to think it's the same bridge the camels and people crossed all those hundreds of years ago.

[Dominic]

Roudia has definitely been repaired. There is no doubt about that. But other bridges have too. And who's to say that the bridge in the photo has been repaired at all? It may still lurk in the woods somewhere.

For me, two things don't say Roudia in the picture. First, the rocks on the left just look too near. Second, the water level looks far too high.

There is an old virtual tour I did of the bridge, you can view here. I can't see any huge poplar trees.

http://www.cypruspanoramas.com/panorama/roudia_bridge

Another bridge was discovered last year in Geroskipou, but buried again to protect it. What state was that in?

As to being disappointed, I felt real disappointment when I first saw Victorian pictures of Stone Henge. Now that was a huge repair job.

[Kili01]

Well with the Mosque, Maronas must have been a TC occupied farming village before 1974. Often these villages suffered worse damage as the village may have been attacked and damaged. The occupants may have been killed or fled. Thus some villages were abandoned. Later some GC farmers used empty houses to keep livestock in which hasn’t preserved them.
I don’t particularly like visiting these villages as I wonder what happened to the people who lived there. So sad.
Dee

[cyprusmax47]

More information (not speculation) gives you the site of PRIO:

Maronas:
Historical Population:
According to the Ottoman census of 1831, the village was solely inhabited by Muslims. However, British censuses report that until 1960, Marona was a mixed village with a Turkish Cypriot majority. The small Greek Cypriot presence in the village fluctuated, rising from one family in 1911 to 23 persons in 1931, before dropping to 14 in 1946. By 1960 there were only three Greek Cypriots living in the village. During the intercommunal tensions of the late 1950s, most of the Greek Cypriots of the village left behind their houses and moved to the relative safety of nearby villages. The total population of the village increased steadily from 179 in 1891 to 414 in 1960.

Displacement:

All but three Greek Cypriots were displaced due to the intercommunal tensions of the late 1950s. Approximately 20 Greek Cypriots abandoned their houses and sought refuge in the nearby village of Fini. No one was displaced during the intercommunal strife of 1963-64. However, the village became a reception center for displaced Turkish Cypriots from Pano Archimandrita(293). Richard Patrick recorded 35 displaced Turkish Cypriots still residing in the village in 1971. He also put the total population of this enclave at 125. Most of these displaced persons stayed in Marona until 1975, when they moved to the northern part of the divide.

The village was not attacked by Greek Cypriot forces in 1974. However, most of the villagers fled the village through the mountains to the island’s north, or took refuge in the British Base areas, later (January 1975) to be transferred to the north via Turkey. The remaining 23 persons were evacuated to the north under UNFICYP escort on 16 August 1975. They were mainly resettled in Agios Amvrosios/Esentepe(207), Prastio/Aydınköy(091), Zodeia/Bostancı(047), Morphou/Güzelyurt(072), Masari/Şahinler(068), Fyllia/Serhatköy(035), Lysi/Türkmenköy(167) and Famagusta(140). The total number of Marona Turkish Cypriots who were displaced after 1974 was approximately 110 (105 in the 1960 census).


Current Inhabitants:

After the departure of the Turkish Cypriots, no one settled in the village. The entire village is in ruins now.

Max

[Dominic]

You can also find that here:

https://www.paphoslife.com/blog/maronas/2