After the winning result of the Greek Revolution, Turkey fell into a severe economic crisis. Upon trying to find a way to get rid of it, they were obliged to sell Cyprus to England. For Turkey, Cyprus was not a beneficial colony.
The greek citizens of the island, as well as a part of the islamists, being inspired by the victory of Greece, created powerful resisting forces causing great loss to the colonial power both in the financial sector and in human resources. The already exhausted Ottoman Empire preferred to sell the island to England in order to evict a second painful loss from Hellenism.
In 1878 the English troops took over the administration of the island. Since the English came from a country with a great civilisation with a lot of knowledge in colony administration, they did not intervene into big cities, so as to not get involved into the conflict between the Greek community of Cyprus and the Ottoman occupiers.
They chose areas at small distance from the cities where they built settlements for themselves as well as for their families. One of these areas was the Mathiatis village. The settlement which they built was called “Agglika spitia” (English houses).
Mathiatis was chosen for many reasons. As a semi mountainous village, it had mild winters and cool summers. There were many fields around the settlement that gave the possibility of multiple cultivation. A big river called Gialias and 3 tributaries crossed the land of Mathiatis.
This land was rich in natural sources of potable water. One of them is still available today. Its waters are now polluted due to the allotment of Mathiatis, thus they run unexploited as they connect with the ones of Gialias.
The distance from Nicosia to the English settlement was 20 kilometres, a distance that is not deterrent for the administration of Nicosia. Thus, the first administrative unit of the English colonial army in Cyprus, is installed in Mathiatis.
Their settlement, the “Agglika spitia”, was found built on the east of Mathiatis, on the peak of a hill and it dominated the whole area.
As the years passed by, some of them died either by natural means, or other causes. It was then when the necessity of a place for the dead people was created. They chose a very beautiful, pine tree planted area, a few hundred metres east of their settlement to build a cemetery. This cemetery still exists today. They are now ruins, but it does not stop being a holy place that is closely connected to the history of Cyprus.
There are obvious clues about the existence of at least one grave. It seems to be “covered” with slabs and there are English letters on some of them, leftovers of some name.
Maybe only a few people know about the existence of this cemetery. It is also probable that no one showed their interest in the dead people “hosted” by Cypriot land, even though if they were nobles.
The old English cemetery is found 500 metres before the entrance to the Mathiatis village, on the left hand side, in the only cypress tree cluster found in the area.
