The "Imprisoned Graves" (

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: «Φυλακισμένα Μνήματα»,

romanized In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, ...

: ''Filakisména Mnímata'') are a set of graves in a small

cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...

located in the Central Jail of Nicosia, where 13

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 ...

fighters killed during the

Cyprus Emergency The Cyprus Emergency was a conflict fought in British Cyprus between April 1955 and March 1959. The National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA), a Greek Cypriot right-wing nationalist guerrilla organisation, began an armed campaign in s ...

were interred. Nine of them were hanged by British executioner Harry Allen, three were killed in action and one died in hospital from wounds he sustained. The tombs were built in an area adjacent to the cells of the condemned and close to the gallows where they would be executed. The area is surrounded by tall walls and covered by glass. Having a small, private cemetery was the idea of

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 ...

Governor Sir John Harding, who did not want the funerals of EOKA fighters to be turned into demonstrations against British rule. The condemned, as well as the four others who died, would be buried in the area without any relatives or a priest present. The nine men who were

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

were buried immediately following their executions. To save space, they were buried two to a grave. The nine men who are

on the

gallows A gallows (or less precisely scaffold) is a frame or elevated beam, typically wooden, from which objects can be suspended or "weighed". Gallows were thus widely used to suspend public weighing scales for large and heavy objects such as sa ...

were: *

Michalis Karaolis Michalis Karaolis (; 13 February 1933 – 10 May 1956) was a Cypriot Greek, Cypriot public official and revolutionary. Born in the village of Palaichori Oreinis of Pitsilia, Karaolis worked as a government clerk and a member of EOKA (the National ...

- executed 10 May 1956 * Andreas Dimitriou - executed 10 May 1956 * Iakovos Patatsos - executed 9 August 1956 * Andreas Zakos - executed 9 August 1956 * Harilaos Michael - executed 9 August 1956 * Michail Koutsoftas - executed 21 September 1956 * Stelios Mavrommatis - executed 21 September 1956 * Andreas Panagidis - executed 21 September 1956 * Evagoras Pallikaridis - executed 14 March 1957 The other four were: * Markos Drakos *

Grigoris Afxentiou Grigoris Pieris Afxentiou (; 22 February 1928 – 3 March 1957) was a Greek-Cypriot insurgent leader who led campaigns against the British colonial government as a member of EOKA. He was second-in-command to general Georgios Grivas and used the p ...

* Stylianos Lenas * Kyriakos Matsis After Cyprus gained independence, the area became a national monument. A sign proclaiming "Του ανδρειωμένου ο θάνατος, θάνατος δεν λογιέται" - "The brave man's death is no death at all" was put up against one of the walls. During the

Turkish invasion of Cyprus The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of Cypriot intercommunal violence, intercommunal violence between Greek Cypriots, Greek and Turkish Cy ...

(1974) battles raged around the Central Jail of Nicosia. Vastly outnumbered, the Cypriot national guardsmen - aided by corrections officers - managed to fight off the Turkish army and keep the jail with the Imprisoned Graves from being captured. Today, the cemetery along with the cells and the gallows function as a museum, open every day between 8:30 and 13:30 for visitors. Taking photos and videos are allowed, but mobile telephones are not (because the museum resides within the territory of the Central Jail of Nicosia).

References

{{coord, 35, 10, 49.51, N, 33, 20, 37.28, E, region:CY, display=title EOKA Cemeteries in Cyprus

See also

References