Filenews 2 July 2023 - by Dora Christodoulou
The revival of Ibrahim's Chania, which took place in 2017, with the assumption of the nomination of Pafos as European Capital of Culture that year, serves until today as a compass for how old and forgotten spaces of a city can be reconnected with its current operation in a very beneficial way. The plans and declarations of the Municipality of Pafos for a similar "resurrection" of other such sites are taking shape.
Another three inns, which in the previous two centuries marked the commercial life in the city and the intercultural and interracial coexistence of the people of the province, are slowly beginning to gain life. The residents of Pafos, who were surprised to see a huge space in the heart of the city's commercial centre transformed day by day in front of them, from a hotbed of abandonment and decline to an impressive hive of cultural and commercial activities in 2017, see similar changes today in yet another area of the traditional bazaar, which most might have been unaware was an inn. And in the near future, two more inns will take place to rediscover the thread of their connection with the present day of the city, under new forms and functions.
It all started with Ibrahim's Inn, a place that in the 19th and until the middle of the 20th century was a component of the daily life, commercial activities and movement of the inhabitants of the island and which, however, to the Paphians of the younger generations reminded nothing until the European Capital of Culture. Five years later, Ibrahim's Inn has been a component of the cultural, social and commercial life of the city, to the extent that no one considers it a "curious" element of everyday life.
Having this as a pilot, today the city and its people are facing the entrance into their daily lives, three more forgotten chania of the city that take turns to come back to life. The Municipality of Pafos has already implemented an ambitious plan for the revival of the other three Chania areas of the city, three spaces that were components of the social and commercial life of the old Estate in the last century, but mainly of its intercultural function and the carefree coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
Hani Fellahoglou is now next, from the homonymous street on which it is located, on the borders of the shopping center and the old Turkish Cypriot district of Mouttalos, which has already begun to be transformed from a building fossil into a living cell of actions with its ongoing redevelopment. And the effort will continue, since most people may have associated the word "inn" with the two above, but Pafos numbered four inns 150 years ago, all of which were of great importance in the everyday life of the city at that time.
The Inn of Fellahoglou is being revived with an expenditure of about €125,000 and will be ready to be reconnected, after decades of "silence" with the modern everyday life of Paphos, from this summer. (The revival of the other two chanias will be promoted later). The municipal authority believes that this new project will contribute even more to the enhancement and beautification of the historic commercial centre of Pafos, while giving further momentum to the commercial traffic of the area.
At the time of the coexistence of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, at a time with a purely agricultural structure for the city and its people, points out the Pafos municipal councillor, Panagiotis Vorkas, the inns of Pafos were places of daily activities and social interactions. Decades later, after the turbulent period of Turkandarsia and then the Turkish invasion, the spaces deteriorated until they passed into oblivion, vegetating only thanks to the existence of three or four craftsmen in their now deserted spaces, he stresses.
The inns of Pafos, known until recently to the older people of the city, came to the fore and became everyone's property, thanks to the European Capital of Culture, observes Mr. Vorkas. "Ibrahim's Inn was chosen from the beginning by the Organization's staff to be the emblematic project of the new Pafos, the project that would symbolize the regeneration of the city through the renovation works that were then underway, but also the intercultural character that has always characterized Pafos."
The head of the infrastructure of Pafos 2017 during the operation of the city as European Capital of Culture, architect Yiannis Koutsolambros, states to "F" that when Pafos claimed the role of European Capital of Culture, Ibrahim's Inn entered the priorities of the Municipality for restoration and utilization with co-financing of the European Regional Development Fund.
The aim of the project, he pointed out, was to create an atmosphere in the space where memories of the past will come alive and will redefine the character of Chania and the historic city centre, while achieving business sustainability and generally improving the quality of life of the people of Pafos.
Panagiotis Vorkas points out the depressing and chaotic, as he said, picture that prevailed in the area where the Hani of Fellahoglou, under redevelopment, and the Inn of Ibrahim are located, just a few years ago.
With a lot of effort and will, he added, we started and continue the work of the total regeneration of the area. With Ibrahim's Inn at its core and now with the redevelopment of the other Chania areas of the city, we are attempting as a Local Authority to reorganize and revitalize the entire traditional center. Upon completion of this effort, the city will demonstrate a tangible model of how a neglected and declining key area can be transformed into a lung of economic and social revitalization and recovery.
