The Lost Glamour Of Platres

At the end of my painted churches blog I mentioned a lost and found abandoned hotel which I cannot just leave without further words. Mostly because of my fascination with abandoned places but also because this hotel, just like Berengaria has a nice, glamorous past.

Our original destination was the New Helvetia hotel in Platres, one of the oldest holiday resorts still operating today, its very picturesque, though a little dated.

As I was looking around I noticed the steep narrow wooden stairs behind the car park and even though I was not sure if I was allowed to climb it I had to see what was up there.

From first sight it seemed there were some cottages for the hotel staff which gave me the uncomfortable feeling that we're trespassing a private area but I quickly shook it off once I saw an old, ruined hotel complex. It must have been abandoned for many years now, every building and paths were covered with thick natural carpet of brown pine-needles.

It was absolutely fascinating for me that just few steps away from a functioning hotel you can still find such a sight. *I feel like I should add a disclaimer here since these buildings are in such bad and dangerous conditions you should perhaps not wander around, especially with children!

The further we walked the more I wanted to know about this place.

It looked like someone was still feeding the cats regularly but today no one was there, just us in the silent forest.

Most of the windows were shattered so I could look through them just to see the disgraceful condition of the rooms. Rubbish and clutter everywhere, dusty and moldy mattresses, broken bed frames and dinnerware all over the floor, like a war zone where people fled their homes.

We walked back to the front of the hotel through a narrow passageway which was once covered with roses but by now reminded me of sleepy hollow.

The view wasn't any less sad, cracked ceilings, pieces of furniture left behind on the corridors, traces of a one busy hotel life.

We finally reached the main entrance which was blocked and chained down but the hotel's name was still visible above the glass doors. Helvetia hotel. I got a bit confused. What happened in here? Did they just shut down the building and moved the resort 50 meters away? And if so, why? Why would they leave it to rot and fall apart? This is a question I'm frequently asking in Cyprus wherever I go and find beautiful houses, villas or hotels. Such a waste.

But here is what my research says. In the late 19th century British discovered a peaceful, evergreen location on the mountainside, called Platres and that's where the journey of tourism began.

Holiday resorts and residences were built by Cypriot emigrants who lived in Egypt, plots from the villagers were purchased with the promises of at least 20 year occupancy. Cyprus entered to an new, unknown era and opened it's doors for the first tourists.

Helvetia started as a rather small hotel then in 1929 it expended to an elegant luxurious resort with wooden floors, classic furniture from Vienna, Juliette balconies and red bricks design.

20 years later the New Helvetia was founded to comply with the demands of blooming tourism.

When and why the older hotel was closed down I can't tell, I was not able to find more information about it however I suspect it might have been related to the struggle of EOKA (Greek Cypriot nationalist guerrilla organisation) when the village was turned into an operational camp of the British army and the hotels were used by the military, following by the Turkish invasion in 1974 when Platres lost the old-times glamour for good.

Then and now