€40-million plan to revive Nicosia’s city centre within the city walls

The Cyprus government presented on Monday a plan to revive Nicosia’s centre situated within the historic Venetian walls totalling €40 million, of which €25 million will be financed by Cyprus’ National Recovery and Resilience Fund.

The plan, with an implementation horizon between 2022 and 2026, features the transfer the University of Cyprus school of architecture in the historic Phaneromeni School, incentives for the creation of student residences, subsidies to boost entrepreneurship in the city-centre, urban incentives, as well as a plan to provide economic support for the purchase of primary residences.

“This is a series of targeted actions which will enable the capital to claim that the city is changing,” President Anastasiades told an event held in the Presidential Palace for the plan’s presentation.

He added that plan is complementing other projects held in the city, such as the rebuild of Eleftheria square, the new National Theatre, the revival of the Municipal Theatre and the new central bus station at Solomos Square.

On his part, Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides said that due to the 1974 Turkish invasion, Nicosia is the only divided capital of Europe and noted that Nicosia within the walls constitutes “our historic identity.”

Nicos Nouris, the Minister for the Interior said “that this plan constitutes the beginning of the implementation of a vision and a decades-old goal to lift the uprooting of the city centre”

Constantinos Yiorkadjis, the Mayor of Nicosia, said despite challenges, the Municipality remains committed to the revival of the city centre. “Abandoning the area would be tantamount to an indirect acknowledgement of the faits accomplis of the Turkish invasion and occupation,” he added.

The plan includes €15 million in subsidies to attract approximately 580 university student halls either in current or new buildings, €10 million in subsidies to boost entrepreneurship in the city centre, while the government is expected in January 2023 to launch a €5 million scheme to subsidise the purchase of primary residences in city centre at the model of the plan for remote and mountainous areas.