A german archaeologist stays forever in Cyprus

On 20 February 1875, the German archaeologist Justus Sigismund, professor at the University of Strasbourg, was tragically killed in Limassol, as he was studying an ancient tomb, five meters below ground in Agios Tychonas. 

Prior to his tragic death, he had met with Andreas Themistocleous, a prominent scholar of Limassol, who was his friend. The funeral of Justus Sigismund took place in the Orthodox Church of Agia Napa  in Limassol and he was buried in the Orthodox cemetery of Agios Nikolaos, in Limassol.

Before the funeral, a religious dispute broke out, when the head of the Franciscan Order (from the Catholic Church of Limassol) refused to perform the funeral service unless he had a certificate, prior to the service, testifying that the German archaeologist belonged to the Catholic faith. Andreas Themistocleous mediated on the matter and the funeral service was conducted by the Orthodox Church. The “Cypriot Letters” review (Kypriaka Grammata) described the funeral as follow:

…the dead man was immediately transferred to the Mutual (Lancastrian) Teaching School of Agia Napa. Many women of Limassol, led by Marigo Lazarides-Pilavaki, washed him in rose water and schoolchildren held a collection among them-to which Onoufrios Iasonides had insisted on contributing-to build a luxury coffin and covered him in bay leaves. The day after, the dead man turned into an actual pilgrimage and his funeral took place with unusual grandeur for his times and was attended by Limassol citizens.*

 *Αντωνάκης Γεωργιάδης, “Justus Sigismund”, Kypriaka Grammata, no. 12, Nicosia April 1940, p. 579-580.

**The text is part of the writer’s article “ The death of a German in Cyprus” in Giorgos Georgis-Georgios Kazamias (ed.), Linked by History. United by Choice. Cyprus and its European Union Partners, Nicosia 2012, p.328-329.