Conservation works completed at Orounda mosque

Conservation works on a mosque in Orounda have been completed by the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage, the committee announced on Wednesday.

The works were completed through a project funded by the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

According to the announcement, the mosque was built in various phases throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

Its complex consists of three buildings: the mosque, a secondary building, and the school building.

Archival sources document that in 1888 the old mosque of Orounda was in a heavily deteriorated state and was in need urgent of repair. The initial mosque building was built of rubble masonry and was going to be restored with the same materials. The same sources document that in September of 1899, the locals undertook restoration works for the mosque.

The documented appointment of a ratified imam on April 12, 1901 indicates that the first phase of restoration works had been concluded by that date. Nevertheless, by 1925 the mosque had once again reached a deteriorated state and a second restoration took place shortly after 1927.

In December 2021, the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage began its conservation works to preserve the monument.

These works included removal of vegetation, debris and waste materials, repair of masonry cracks, repointing of the stone masonry, reconstruction of the eroded sections, installation of a geogrid reinforcement mesh on the adobe masonry, maintenance of the roof structure, as well as necessary interventions.

The conservation works ended in August 2022.

Since 2012, over 100 cultural heritage sites island-wide have been conserved, structurally supported, physically protected, or restored by the committee and UNDP, with the support from the EU and total funding of €24.915 million. The committee has received approximately €33.662 million invested by several donors for the preservation of the island-wide cultural heritage of Cyprus.