For nearly 25 years, Maureen Watt, director of Angel Guardians Funeral Home and a spokesperson for Golden Leaves Cyprus Crematorium, has seen families in Cyprus forced to bury their loved ones, even though they themselves had expressed a different last wish. Maureen has lived on the island for 21 years and heard over and over again the same anguish from British, German, Dutch and other non-Orthodox communities she served, that there is no crematorium in Cyprus.
She spent almost two decades pushing, claiming and collecting signatures, trying to change a reality that left many families without a choice. In the meantime, she performed thousands of funerals and saw people trying to manage their grief in a system that could not meet the wishes of their loved ones. Wherever she went, he heard the same question: "What about the crematorium? Is it moving forward?''
Now, finally, she has an answer.
Golden Leaves Cyprus Crematorium Limited has secured the final planning permission for the installation in Agia Varvara, Paphos. It will be the first crematorium in Cyprus.
Construction is expected to begin in September or earlier, with a goal of completion in 2027, although the official estimate places the project in 2028. The building will cover more than 1,000 square meters, on a plot of more than 11,000 square meters, with an estimated construction cost of €4 million.
Maureen's involvement began in 2008, when she was working selling funeral programs for Golden Leaves Ltd in Cyprus and constantly encountered the same impasse. Families were asking about the possibility of cremation and there was no answer.
At that time she met Clive Turner, a British expatriate who lived in Kamares, Paphos and was already campaigning for the creation of a crematorium, collecting signatures to be submitted to the government. Maureen stood by his side. Together they collected thousands of signatures from residents all over the island.
The efforts lasted for years, with meetings in various ministries and few tangible results. "We honestly felt like we weren't going anywhere," Maureen recalls. But the more he talked to the people, the clearer the need became. Their data showed that 91.5% of foreigners living in Cyprus preferred cremation as a first option. The bureaucratic wall, however, remained standing.
In 2010, Maureen met Neophytos Christodoulides, who would later become her partner at Angel Guardians funeral home. Two years after the beginning of their cooperation, he put the issue of the crematorium back on the table. Together they resumed contacts with officials, this time with even greater determination.
After persistent pressure and countless meetings, a preliminary permit was secured in 2016 — the same year that the Cypriot Parliament passed legislation allowing cremation, after more than a decade of discussions. Maureen then approached Steve Rowland and Barry Floyd of Golden Leaves Ltd., who agreed to fund the project for the island.
"We presented the government with all the positives of the crematorium," Maureen tells us, "and then they really started to seriously consider it."
Twenty-five years of waiting
The public debate about cremation in Cyprus actually began in 2001, with a death that brought the issue to the surface in a way that could no longer be ignored. Ploutis Servis, the first General Secretary of AKEL, had clearly expressed his desire to be cremated. His family, eventually, moved his body to the United Kingdom to make this wish come true. The case was a turning point for the public debate.
A bill submitted in 2002 by the then DIKO MP, Marios Matsakis, reached the Parliament, where it met with fierce reactions from the Church of Cyprus.
In 2003, an initiative called "Cremation in Cyprus" was created, mainly by British residents — people who were in the exact position of those Maureen would later meet every day. New legislative efforts followed in 2006 and 2009. Each time, the bill stuck.
The Holy Synod had clarified its position: the Church could not prevent those who chose cremation, but it would not perform a funeral service for them. "That would be contrary to our beliefs and tradition," he said.
Maureen makes the same distinction. "The crematorium does not come to upset the Orthodox Church or anyone else," she says. "It is done to give the community the choice" and "to offer families a more economical way to fulfil the last wish of their loved ones."
The bill was passed in the spring of 2016. But passing a law and building a crematorium are two very different things. For years, there has been no private initiative. Funeral home owners pressured the state to undertake the construction of the facility itself. The government refused.
In the meantime, the rest of Europe had solved this issue decades ago. Britain since 1884, France since 1887, Greece only in 2006, with its first crematorium operating in 2019. In Cyprus, it took us until 2023 for a private initiative to be publicly confirmed.
What the installation will offer
The site in Agia Varvara was chosen for its privacy, accessibility and tranquility. The facility has been designed with sustainability and dignity in mind, with state-of-the-art incineration technology that will meet environmental standards, landscaped memorial spaces, and columbariums for storing urns.
Two ceremonial halls will serve families: one with a capacity of up to 60 people and the other up to 120. Both will be open to all religions, as well as non-religious ceremonies. Families will be able to choose a church service first and then go to the crematorium, where eulogies can be delivered.
The crematorium will be accessible to all funeral homes on the island, while Maureen intends to distribute information material in Greek, English, Chinese and Russian to inform all communities. He also hopes that the facility will be able in the future to serve families from neighbouring countries who wish to be cremated in Cyprus.
Those who want to declare their wish in advance can fill out a relevant form today at the Paphos District Office or through the Angel Guardians funeral home. Maureen would like this process to be extended to the whole island — and, eventually, even the written declaration requirement itself to be reconsidered.
For her, the obligation of written consent touches on something deeply personal. At the moment, only the Paphos District Office accepts the form by which someone declares that they wish to be cremated after their death. She herself would like, at some point, this condition to be abolished completely.
"My father died at the age of 53. He would have signed such a form if it had been needed in Scotland. Seven months later, however, my little brother, who was only 17 years old, was killed. He would never have signed such a form. Would they deprive our family of the right to cremate him?"
It is a question of what such a registration process cannot foresee: young people, sudden deaths, those who did not have time to prepare.
That is why Maureen is requesting, at least for the time being, that the forms be available throughout the island.
"If there are people in Limassol, Larnaca or even Nicosia who want to be cremated," she says, "it doesn't make sense for them to have to come to Paphos for the registration form."
The Cost of Not Choosing
The absence of a crematorium has never been just a hassle; Families who chose cremation faced, in addition to mourning, the cost of repatriating the body. Graves, where available, cost between €350 and €6,000. Some communities have restrictions on burial. A foreigner living in a village may find that the local cemetery does not accept him and that the nearest cemetery that accepts non-Orthodox is an hour away.
The Covid-19 pandemic made the consequences impossible to ignore. When flights stopped and repatriation became impossible, people who never wanted to be buried in Cyprus were eventually buried here. "There are people buried here who didn't want to be buried," says Maureen. "But there was no other choice."
The crematorium, she believes, is ultimately about something simple: dignity and the right to respect a person's last wish.
"It's not about who wants to be cremated and who doesn't," she says. "It's about the choice being real."
