• 001 - the logo.jpg
  • 002 - Hiroshima sunset.jpg
  • 003 - Auschwitz-Birkenau ramp.jpg
  • 004 - Chernobyl contamination.jpg
  • 005 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 006 - Berlin Wall madness.jpg
  • 007 - Bulgaria - monument at the bottom of Buzludzhy park hill.jpg
  • 008 - Ijen crater.jpg
  • 009 - Aralsk, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 010 - Paris catacombs.jpg
  • 011 - Krakatoa.jpg
  • 012 - Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.jpg
  • 013 - Uyuni.jpg
  • 014 - DMZ Vietnam.jpg
  • 015 - Colditz Kopie.jpg
  • 016 - Glasgow Necropolis.jpg
  • 017 - Hashima ghost island.jpg
  • 018 - Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 019 - Arlington.jpg
  • 020 - Karosta prison.jpg
  • 021 - Kamikaze.jpg
  • 022 - Chacabuco ghost town.jpg
  • 023 - Eagle's Nest, Obersalzberg, Berchtesgaden.jpg
  • 024 - Kursk.jpg
  • 025 - Bran castle, Carpathia, Romania.jpg
  • 026 - Bestattungsmuseum Wien.jpg
  • 027 - Pripyat near Chernobyl.jpg
  • 028 - Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 029 - Pyramida Lenin.jpg
  • 030 - Falklands.jpg
  • 031 - Majdanek.jpg
  • 032 - Soufriere volcano, Montserrat.jpg
  • 033 - moai on Easter Island.jpg
  • 034 - Sidoarjo.jpg
  • 035 - Hötensleben.jpg
  • 036 - Natzweiler.jpg
  • 037 - Polygon, Semipalatinsk test site, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 038 - Srebrenica.jpg
  • 039 - Liepaja, Latvia.jpg
  • 040 - Vemork hydroelectric power plant building, Norway.jpg
  • 041 - Enola Gay.jpg
  • 042 - Pentagon 9-11 memorial.jpg
  • 043 - Robben Island prison, South Africa.jpg
  • 044 - Tollund man.jpg
  • 045 - Marienthal tunnel.jpg
  • 046 - Aso, Japan.jpg
  • 047 - Labrador battery Singapore.jpg
  • 048 - Artyom island, Absheron, Azerbaijan.jpg
  • 049 - Treblinka.jpg
  • 050 - Titan II silo.jpg
  • 051 - dosemetering doll, Chernobyl.jpg
  • 052 - Holocaust memorial, Berlin.jpg
  • 053 - Komodo dragon.jpg
  • 054 - cemeterio general, Santiago de Chile.jpg
  • 055 - Tuol Sleng, Phnom Phen, Cambodia.jpg
  • 056 - West Virginia penitentiary.jpg
  • 057 - ovens, Dachau.jpg
  • 058 - Derry, Northern Ireland.jpg
  • 059 - Bulgaria - Buzludzha - workers of all countries unite.jpg
  • 060 - Sachsenhausen.jpg
  • 061 - Tiraspol dom sovietov.jpg
  • 062 - modern-day Pompeii - Plymouth, Montserrat.jpg
  • 063 - Pico de Fogo.jpg
  • 064 - Trinity Day.jpg
  • 065 - Zwentendorf control room.jpg
  • 066 - Wolfschanze.jpg
  • 067 - Hiroshima by night.jpg
  • 068 - mass games, North Korea.jpg
  • 069 - Harrisburg.jpg
  • 070 - Nuremberg.jpg
  • 071 - Mostar.jpg
  • 072 - Tu-22, Riga aviation museum.jpg
  • 073 - Gallipoli, Lone Pine.jpg
  • 074 - Auschwitz-Birkenau - fence.jpg
  • 075 - Darvaza flaming gas crater.jpg
  • 076 - Atatürk Mausoleum, Ankara.jpg
  • 077 - Banda Aceh boats.jpg
  • 078 - AMARG.jpg
  • 079 - Chacabuco ruins.jpg
  • 080 - Bucharest.jpg
  • 081 - Bernauer Straße.jpg
  • 082 - Death Railway, Thailand.jpg
  • 083 - Mandor killing fields.jpg
  • 084 - Kozloduy.jpg
  • 085 - Jerusalem.jpg
  • 086 - Latin Bridge, Sarajevo.jpg
  • 087 - Panmunjom, DMZ, Korea.jpg
  • 088 - Ijen blue flames.jpg
  • 089 - Derry reconsilliation monument.jpg
  • 090 - Ebensee.jpg
  • 091 - Mödlareuth barbed wire.jpg
  • 092 - skull heaps in Sedlec ossuary, Czech Republic.jpg
  • 093 - Nikel.jpg
  • 094 - Fukushima-Daiichi NPP.jpg
  • 095 - Tital launch control centre.jpg
  • 096 - Dallas Dealy Plaza and Sixth Floor Museum.jpg
  • 097 - Auschwitz I.jpg
  • 098 - Stalin and Lenin, Tirana, Albania.jpg
  • 099 - Malta, Fort St Elmo.jpg
  • 100 - Peenemünde.jpg
  • 101 - Tarrafal.jpg
  • 102 - Kilmainham prison, Dublin.jpg
  • 103 - North Korea.jpg
  • 104 - Mittelbau-Dora.jpg
  • 105 - St Helena.jpg
  • 106 - Stutthof, Poland.jpg
  • 107 - Merapi destruction.jpg
  • 108 - Chueung Ek killing fields, Cambodia.jpg
  • 109 - Marienborn former GDR border.jpg
  • 110 - Mig and star, Kazakhstan.jpg
  • 111 - Nagasaki WWII tunnels.jpg
  • 112 - Hellfire Pass, Thailand.jpg
  • 113 - Kiev.jpg
  • 114 - Grutas Park, Lithuania.jpg
  • 115 - Zwentendorf reactor core.jpg
  • 116 - two occupations, Tallinn.jpg
  • 117 - Trunyan burial site.jpg
  • 118 - Ushuaia prison.jpg
  • 119 - Buchenwald.jpg
  • 120 - Marienthal with ghost.jpg
  • 121 - Murmansk harbour - with an aircraft carrier.jpg
  • 122 - Berlin Olympiastadion.JPG
  • 123 - Bastille Day, Paris.jpg
  • 124 - Spassk.jpg
  • 125 - Theresienstadt.jpg
  • 126 - B-52s.jpg
  • 127 - Bledug Kuwu.jpg
  • 128 - Friedhof der Namenlosen, Vienna.jpg
  • 129 - Auschwitz-Birkenau barracks.jpg
  • 130 - mummies, Bolivia.jpg
  • 131 - Barringer meteor crater.jpg
  • 132 - Murambi, Rwanda.jpg
  • 133 - NTS.jpg
  • 134 - Mauthausen Soviet monument.jpg
  • 135 - pullution, Kazakhstan.JPG
  • 136 - palm oil madness.jpg
  • 137 - Berlin socialist realism.jpg
  • 138 - Okawa school building ruin.jpg
  • 139 - Pawiak, Warsaw.jpg
  • 140 - flying death, military museum Dresden.JPG
  • 141 - KGB gear.JPG
  • 142 - KZ jacket.JPG
  • 143 - ex-USSR.JPG
  • 144 - Indonesia fruit bats.JPG
  • 145 - Alcatraz.JPG
  • 146 - Chernobyl Museum, Kiev, Ukraine.JPG
  • 147 - Halemaumau lava lake glow, Hawaii.JPG
  • 148 - Rosinenbomber at Tempelhof, Berlin.jpg
  • 149 - Verdun, France.JPG
  • 150 - hospital, Vukovar, Croatia.JPG
  • 151 - the original tomb of Napoleon, St Helena.JPG
  • 152 - Buchenwald, Germany.JPG
  • 153 - Bhopal.JPG
  • 154 - Groß-Rosen, Poland.jpg
  • 155 - at Monino, Russia.jpg
  • 156 - blinking Komodo.jpg
  • 157 - inside Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 158 - Mount St Helens, USA.JPG
  • 159 - Maly Trostenec, Minsk, Belarus.jpg
  • 160 - Vucedol skulls, Croatia.JPG
  • 161 - colourful WW1 shells.JPG
  • 162 - Zeljava airbase in Croatia.JPG
  • 163 - rusting wrecks, Chernobyl.JPG
  • 164 - San Bernadine alle Ossa, Milan, Italy.jpg
  • 165 - USS Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.JPG
  • 166 - Brest Fortress, Belarus.JPG
  • 167 - thousands of bats, Dom Rep.JPG
  • 168 - Hohenschönhausen, Berlin.JPG
  • 169 - Perm-36 gulag site.JPG
  • 170 - Jasenovac, Croatia.JPG
  • 171 - Beelitz Heilstätten.JPG
  • 172 - Kremlin, Moscow.jpg
  • 173 - old arms factory, Dubnica.JPG
  • 174 - Pervomaisc ICBM base, more  missiles, including an SS-18 Satan.jpg
  • 175 - Cellular Jail, Port Blair.jpg
  • 177 - control room, Chernobyl NPP.JPG
  • 178 - Podgorica, Montenegro, small arms and light weapons sculpture.jpg
  • 179 - Vught.jpg
  • 180 - Japanese cave East Timor.jpg
  • 181 - Ani.jpg
  • 182 - Indonesia wildfire.jpg
  • 183 - Chacabuco big sky.jpg
  • 184 - Bunker Valentin, Germany.JPG
  • 185 - Lest we Forget, Ypres.JPG
  • 186 - the logo again.jpg

Kokkinotrimithia concentration camp

  
 2Stars10px  (possibly more if you know Greek) - darkometer rating: 7 -
  
Kokkinotrimithia 14   with barbed wire fencesOne of the former concentration camps in Cyprus that the then British colonial rulers operated to incarcerate members of the paramilitary organization EOKA that between 1955 and 1959 waged a guerilla war against the colonialists. Today it is one of the main EOKA memorial sites, but with quite restricted access for the general public.
More background info: for the wider context see the history section in the general chapter about Cyprus.
  
Kokkinotrimithia was one of the first of the six to eight (numbers vary by source) concentration camps (or “detention camps”) that the British established during the 1955-1959 guerrilla war mounted by EOKA against the colonialists. It was also the largest of these camps.
  
Initially, captured EOKA fighters were held at Nicosia Central Prison (see the Imprisoned Graves) and at Kyrenia Castle, but inmate numbers swelled so much that these special camps were set up. How many inmates there were is a bit unclear. “Over 3000” is a figure often given, but both for Kokkinotrimithia alone as well as for the total number of inmates at all these camps. I have not been able to clarify this puzzle.
  
The prisoners were housed in barracks that resemble elongated Nissen huts with windows. As these were made of corrugated iron there was little insulation. So in the hot summer months the inmates would swelter inside the huts while they would be freezing in the winter. The huts were also overcrowded, with beds almost touching each other and just a narrow corridor in the middle.
  
The rules were strict, the barracks were surrounded by barbed-wire fences and there were watchtowers with searchlights and machine-gun positions at the top, aiming at the inmates at all times. The prisoners were locked in at night (no toilet breaks allowed) and during the day could make use only of small yards outside the barracks. But they were allowed some sporting activities, reading, bible studies, and quite a few took to joinery (see below). Initially they could also write to relatives and receive letters (though there was censorship).
  
Despite the restrictions, a secret underground EOKA ‘council’ was formed within the camp. This organized protest actions, such as hunger strikes and even proper uprisings. These resulted in the stripping away of privileges and even torture. Apparently some of the British guards were quite enthusiastic and inventive at this, as recalled by some former inmates’ autobiographies and depictions at the memorial today (see below).
  
There was also a prison inside the prison with a number of isolation cells, where punished inmates were kept in small cells with minute windows, so almost in the dark, and were given only bread and water.
  
After the London and Zurich Agreements that paved the way for independence, the camp was closed on 22 February 1959 and all prisoners were released.
  
Apart from the small vestiges of the Polemi camp, Kokkinotrimithia is the only British concentration camp in Cyprus that has been preserved (partially at least). It also serves as the venue for EOKA gatherings and anniversary celebrations – and of course for commemoration. To this end they also converted some of the barracks into museums (see below) and erected several memorial monuments within the former camp’s grounds.
  
But all this is basically a members-only affair. The site is not normally accessible to the general public. Hence the camp has otherwise become largely forgotten and there is no mention of it in Cyprus travel guidebooks.
  
However, a reader of mine, a Russian expat who has lived in Limassol for eight years and acquired a good knowledge of the more unusual attractions of Cyprus (see also Mitsero mines), got in touch and alerted me to the existence of this site (and others I hadn’t yet covered in my book or this website at that point). And when I finally managed to visit the country in January 2023, he kindly arranged a special visit. He contacted the relevant EOKA people and managed to get them to open the camp specifically for us one Sunday. That’s how I got to see the various things inside the camp as detailed below.
  
Note that many Cypriots not familiar with this old camp associate the place name Kokkinotrimithia rather with present-day refugee camps. (Cyprus has taken in a significant number of people fleeing the war in Syria, for instance.) So don’t get the two confused.
  
  
What there is to see: normally not very much. If you just rock up you’ll find the gate locked and no entry permitted. The best you can do then is peek through the gate and maybe the fences surrounding the compound.
  
However, a local who had got in touch with me (see above) arranged a special opening of the site for a little group we put together (see also here). So when we arrived at the gate it was open and an elderly man (presumably an EOKA veteran or relative) greeted us. (Interestingly there was also a police car parked by the museum.) We were then free to explore much of the camp, including the exhibitions in the museum and inside the former prisoners’ barracks.
  
Above the gate to the compound is a large sign saying “K concentration camp” in English and in Greek specifying the name and the dates when the camp started operating and when it was closed. Of course there would not have been any such sign back then.
  
Just inside is also a sentry point hut that clearly looks like a replica. Along the central avenue there are a number of monuments and busts on plinths – allegedly some of these are in honour of prisoners who managed to escape. The central monument is a large grey stone obelisk … and there are numerous Greek national flags flying – but not a single Cypriot one.
  
Just outside the museum this is also echoed on a circular structure, which may have been a water tank, whose whitewashed outer wall is covered with various EOKA slogans in blue paint. One of them translates as “Cyprus is Greek”. This is a reference to the fact that while EOKA succeeded in achieving independence from the British, the organization did not attain their other goal, namely that of ‘enosis’ (unification with Greece – see Cypriot history). Other slogans translate as “Freedom or Death” and “Out with the British” (still?!?).
  
Inside the main museum building the walls are plastered with little portrait photos, presumably of EOKA members/prisoners. In the centre is a bust of EOKA founder Georgios Grivas and there’s also a whole section with documents and photos of him – proper hero worship.
  
Also in the centre are a couple of glass display cabinets with exhibits such as old rifles and machine guns and various objects made by the prisoners while incarcerated at Kokkinotrimithia. Remarkably this includes not one but two wooden models of the Eiffel Tower in Paris! Also on display are several paintings and drawings depicting the plight of the EOKA prisoners. At the other end of the hall is an auditorium with over a dozen rows of chairs – and, again, quite a few Greek flags.
  
We then made our way to the three corrugated iron barracks that have been preserved here, together with the barbed-wire fences that surround them. This is where it gets decidedly grim.
  
The first hut we were ushered into was lined with over a dozen further Greek flags and in between them hang paintings that depict the various methods of torture employed here by the British. This is the very darkest part of the site. I’ve abstained from reproducing any photos of these paintings in the gallery below, however.
  
Another hut contained stylized rows of “beds”, 30 in total, that the hut would have been filled with back in the day. Except these “beds” seen today are made of concrete with wooden plank tops, so are only symbolic. On the walls are various historial photos as well as more contemporary ones depicting EOKA events over the years. Since everything was in Greek only, I could not really make out any details.
  
The third barrack contained an additional exhibition not about EOKA as such but about the history of Cyprus going back much further. Again, all texts were in Greek only so their content remained largely a mystery to me.
  
Beyond the grim barbed-wire-surrounded barracks was another especially dark element: the arrest block, or prison-inside-the-prison. This is where the dark solitary confinement cells are, “furnished” with only a wooden plank for a bed and a bucket as a toilet, plus a water jug (inmates in these cells were given only water and bread). Only a brick-sized window at the very top of the outer wall let in a minimum amount of daylight.
  
Furthermore there’s also a reconstructed canteen and near the gate I spotted a watchtower semi-hidden by the foliage of the trees that now surround it. Another tower-like structure had a cross at the top and a bell suspended from it, so I guess this would be something like an improvised church tower for religious ceremonies.
  
Finally there’s a monument complex with a ca. life-size statue of an EOKA fighter brandishing a machine gun, flanked by plaques and yet more Greek national flags.
  
All in all, it’s a suitably grim place, especially the prisoners’ huts and all that barbed wire of the fences surrounding them, yet the exhibitions aren’t all that illuminating, and if you can’t read Greek their content remains largely mysterious in any case. (You can learn more about EOKA and the camps at the Museum of the National Struggle; see also the Imprisoned Graves in Nicosia.) But for sheer visually dark appeal this has to be one of the top sights in Cyprus. It’s a shame that access is so restricted.
  
  
Location: just to the east of the village of the same name and on the edge of a nearby contemporary industrial area, a good eight miles (12 km) west of Nicosia.
  
Google Maps locator: [35.1542, 33.2244]
  
  
Access and costs: a bit hidden and with very restricted access, but free.
  
Details: To get to this site you need your own vehicle (or hire car) as there is no public transport here. From the main A9 motorway, which leads out of Nicosia in a westerly direction, exit left at the Kokkinotrimithia junction. When you come to a roundabout take the second exit to turn right. Keep left on this road until you come to a T-junction, where you turn left and then immediately right again. This curved road ends by the camp’s gate.
  
Normally this gate will be locked and entry to the premises not permitted. But when I visited with a local (see above) he had made prior arrangements with EOKA, who seem to be in charge of the place and specially opened it for us – at no charge.
  
  
Time required: for just a quick look through the gate and the fences probably only a few minutes. When I visited with a local who had made arrangements for the place to be opened for us, we spent something like 45 minutes at the site. If you can read Greek and want to take in everything that’s on the text panels, I would reckon you might need at least half an hour longer.
  
   
Combinations with other dark destinations: We combined the visit to this camp with driving to the Mitsero mines afterwards, which are about ten miles (16 km) to the south-west (as the crow flies, distances by road are greater).
  
The village of Mammari north of Kokkinotrimithia has a small ossuary underneath the Agios Georgios church, as well as some intriguing cave systems (created by mining), some are home to bat colonies. But I didn’t get to see any of these.
  
Other than that it’s best to drive back to Nicosia.
  
  
Combinations with non-dark destinations: nothing much in the immediate vicinity. The nearest place of touristic interest will in fact be Nicosia.
  
  
 
  • Kokkinotrimithia 01 - gateKokkinotrimithia 01 - gate
  • Kokkinotrimithia 02 - sentry postKokkinotrimithia 02 - sentry post
  • Kokkinotrimithia 03 - various memorialsKokkinotrimithia 03 - various memorials
  • Kokkinotrimithia 04 - Greek flag avenueKokkinotrimithia 04 - Greek flag avenue
  • Kokkinotrimithia 05 - water tank with EOKA slogansKokkinotrimithia 05 - water tank with EOKA slogans
  • Kokkinotrimithia 06 - Cyprus is Greek, it saysKokkinotrimithia 06 - Cyprus is Greek, it says
  • Kokkinotrimithia 07 - inside the main memorial museumKokkinotrimithia 07 - inside the main memorial museum
  • Kokkinotrimithia 08 - hero worshipKokkinotrimithia 08 - hero worship
  • Kokkinotrimithia 09 - weaponsKokkinotrimithia 09 - weapons
  • Kokkinotrimithia 10 - Eiffel Tower models made by inmatesKokkinotrimithia 10 - Eiffel Tower models made by inmates
  • Kokkinotrimithia 11 - exhibitionKokkinotrimithia 11 - exhibition
  • Kokkinotrimithia 12 - auditoriumKokkinotrimithia 12 - auditorium
  • Kokkinotrimithia 13 - Nissen-hut-like barracksKokkinotrimithia 13 - Nissen-hut-like barracks
  • Kokkinotrimithia 14 - with barbed-wire fencesKokkinotrimithia 14 - with barbed-wire fences
  • Kokkinotrimithia 15 - patrol track between two barracksKokkinotrimithia 15 - patrol track between two barracks
  • Kokkinotrimithia 16 - door specially openedKokkinotrimithia 16 - door specially opened
  • Kokkinotrimithia 17 - inside the first hutKokkinotrimithia 17 - inside the first hut
  • Kokkinotrimithia 18 - looking outKokkinotrimithia 18 - looking out
  • Kokkinotrimithia 19 - inside the next hutKokkinotrimithia 19 - inside the next hut
  • Kokkinotrimithia 20 - additional historical exhibitionKokkinotrimithia 20 - additional historical exhibition
  • Kokkinotrimithia 21 - back outsideKokkinotrimithia 21 - back outside
  • Kokkinotrimithia 22 - barbed wireKokkinotrimithia 22 - barbed wire
  • Kokkinotrimithia 23 - barbed wire galoreKokkinotrimithia 23 - barbed wire galore
  • Kokkinotrimithia 24 - camp prisonKokkinotrimithia 24 - camp prison
  • Kokkinotrimithia 25 - cell doorsKokkinotrimithia 25 - cell doors
  • Kokkinotrimithia 26 - for solitary confinementKokkinotrimithia 26 - for solitary confinement
  • Kokkinotrimithia 27 - very little lightKokkinotrimithia 27 - very little light
  • Kokkinotrimithia 28 - hidden watchtowerKokkinotrimithia 28 - hidden watchtower
  • Kokkinotrimithia 29 - cross towerKokkinotrimithia 29 - cross tower
  • Kokkinotrimithia 30 - canteenKokkinotrimithia 30 - canteen
  • Kokkinotrimithia 31 - EOKA fighter monumentKokkinotrimithia 31 - EOKA fighter monument
  
  
  
  
  

© dark-tourism.com, Peter Hohenhaus 2009-2023

Cookies make it easier for us to provide you with our services. With the usage of our services you permit us to use cookies.
More information Ok