Kayra Lyons
One of my favorite activities I like to engage in when exploring a new place, is a deep observation of the structures around me as I stroll. Because of the heat, I don’t find myself going on walks in Larnaca without a destination or a purpose. Usually we are on the way to a meal, or to the beach, or to the grocery store. But recently I have been trying to be more mindful of my architectural surroundings, and to appreciate the day to day differences of a Cypriot street and one I am used to back in the States. Something my friends and I have been observing, especially in the older parts of Larnaca in the surrounding area of the Church of St. Lazarus, are the old wooden doors. In varying conditions, there exist rows and rows of old doors. Some freshly painted over, some slowly disintegrating. The attention to detail in some of the wrought iron designs embellishing the doors was so interesting to see, and it gave the street surroundings all the more vibrance and life. The doors being so obviously old and worn, in combination with the attempts made to conserve them and give them new life marked to me their importance as a part of the city.
Above many of these old doors were decorative windows, in unique shapes. One in particular was structured similarly to an evil eye above the door. In Cypriot culture in my experiences in the North of Cyprus, an evil eye above a doorway is commonplace as a symbol of protection. Seeing the ways that this aspect of Cyprus had been inscribed into the structural landscape was so interesting. In the future, I would like to make a door comparison between the ones in the North and South of Cyprus, and pay closer attention to architectural features in big cities in the North if staying there for a longer period of time.
These doors seemed to me like such a unique, long lasting marker of Cypriot history, and I even observed in one case a deceivingly fake door, a to-scale image of the beautiful doors all around it printed on the wall of a building. The color and size were so similar to the original door that on first glance you could barely tell the difference.
