Neoklis Kyriazis (; 1877 – August 1956) was a Cypriot

medical doctor A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

known for his significant contributions to the

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

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 ...

. He was a member of the National Council of Cyprus.

Family

Neoklis Kyriazis was born in 1877 in

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 ...

. His father was George Kyriazis, one of five

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 ...

brothers from

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

, who founded the

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into Rolling paper, thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhale ...

empire Kyriazi Freres. His mother was Zafiro Odyssea Chasapoglou great granddaughter of Tselepis Hadji-Petrakis Kytherios (1770–1830), one of the richest landowners in

. Neoklis’ maternal grandmother, Maritsa Tano, was a descendant of the Tano family, belonging to the

Italian nobility The Italian nobility ( Italian: ''Nobiltà italiana'') comprised individuals and their families of the Italian Peninsula, and the islands linked with it, recognized by the sovereigns of the Italian city-states since the Middle Ages, and by the k ...

. He married Maria Pieridi (1871–1953), herself a descendant of another

family ( Cariddi).

Historical work

Kyriazis was a member of the National Council of

. As a member of the St Lazarus Committee he founded the Museum of St Lazarus church in

Larnaca Larnaca, also spelled Larnaka, is a city on the southeast coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. With a district population of 155.000 in 2021, it is the third largest city in the country after Nicosi ...

. One of his greatest achievements was the salvage and subsequent publication of many historical details concerning

through the ages. He started publishing articles on this subject from 1909, and over a period of 47 years he published several books and over 370 articles and studies. He participated in the publication of the monumental ‘Cyprus Chronicles’ ( Kypriaka Chronica) a scientific/historical magazine (1923–1937) consisting of 4200 pages. These Chronicles were under the auspices of a four-member committee (the

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Kition Kition (Ancient Greek: , ; Latin: ; Egyptian: ; Phoenician: , , or , ;) was an ancient Phoenician and Greek city-kingdom on the southern coast of Cyprus (in present-day Larnaca), one of the Ten city-kingdoms of Cyprus. Name The name of the ...

Nikodemos Mylonas, prof. Ioannis Sykoutris, Loukis Z Pieridis, and Neoklis Kyriazis), and covered every aspect of the history of Cyprus from the ancient times through to the Turkish and subsequently

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

occupation. Kyriazis was the only, or nearly only, author of this periodical from 1929–1937.

Medical doctor

He worked as

in Larnaca and wrote both scientific and popular papers on the Cypriot Medical History, a subject continued by his grandson Dr Marios Kyriazis. As a doctor he was credited with the founding of a quarantine facility to prevent the spread of

communicable diseases infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable disea ...

from sailors visiting Larnaca. His medical library, instruments and other memorabilia are now exhibited at the Kyriazis Medical Museum in Larnaca.

Books

*Popular Medicine (Dimodis Iatriki), 1926 *Historical Pages, 1929 *Bibliography of Cyprus (Kypriaki Bibliographia), 1935 *Cypriot Proverbs (Kypriakai Paroimiai), 1940 *Social Activities of Larnaca, 1947 *Historical News of the Holy Stavrovouni Monastery, 1948 *History of the Holy

Kykkos Monastery Kykkos Monastery ( or [] for short, ), which lies 20 km west of Pedoulas, is one of the wealthiest and best-known monastery, monasteries in Cyprus. The Holy Monastery of the Virgin of Kykkos was founded around the end of the 11th century by ...

, 1949 *Monasteries in Cyprus, 1950 *Names of the Holy Mother (Eponymiai tis Panagias), 1950 *The Villages of Cyprus, 1952 *History of Larnaca Municipality (published posthumously in 1995)

Honours

The Bishop of

said: ''Kyriazis was a rare and constructive personality with live national consciousness and selfless love for this island''. Larnaca Municipality honoured Kyriazis by naming a street after him. The Society of Cypriot Studies dedicated a commemorative plaque Kypros Chrisanthis, Kypriakai Spoudai MΣT 1982. in the courtyard of St Lazarus church. This roughly translates as:

''Of the same craft as Aesculapius'' - ''Neoklis Kyriazis'' - ''Humble pride of Larnaca'' - ''Lover of honourable letters'' - ''And sailor of the manuscripts'' - ''We salute you''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kyriazis, Neoklis Greek Cypriots 1877 births 1956 deaths People from Nicosia Historians of Europe