The first crematorium in Cyprus is set to open in the summer of 2026, marking the end of a 25-year saga that faced religious opposition and legislative hurdles, Golden Leaves Cyprus Crematorium Limited announced on Thursday.
The €4 million facility, to be built in Paphos’s Agia Varvara area, will cover 17,575 square metres with a 1,012-square-metre building. Basic cremation services will cost around €900, excluding funeral home fees and additional services, the company said.
The facility will be accessible to all funeral homes and religious communities, offering ceremonial halls and columbaria for storing urns, the company said.
Church opposition
The project follows Cyprus’s 2016 cremation law, which passed after 15 years of parliamentary discussions. The Orthodox Church maintained its opposition, stating it would not perform funeral services for members choosing cremation, viewing it as contrary to its traditions and beliefs.
“Those who do not belong to the Orthodox Church, and are therefore foreign to our tradition, can adopt cremation both for themselves and their relatives,” the Holy Synod said in a statement, adding that while it advises followers to maintain tradition, it “cannot prevent its members from this possibility.”
Timeline of discussions
Public discussion on the issue intensified in 2001 following the death of Ploutis Servas, the first general secretary of left-wing AKEL, whose final wishes for cremation required his remains to be transported to Britain.
The first legislative proposal in March 2002 by then-DIKO MP Marios Matsakis faced strong Church opposition, including from Archbishop Chrysostomos. A British-led initiative called “Cremation in Cyprus” gathered support, with Greek Cypriot participation growing significantly by 2013.
In 2006, President Tassos Papadopoulos’s government established a special committee under Law Commissioner Leda Koursoumba to draft legislation initially restricting cremation to non-Cypriots. The Christofias government removed this limitation in 2009.
Despite the 2016 legislation, implementation stalled until 2023. Between 2016 and 2018, no private initiatives emerged, leading funeral home owners to petition the government, citing prohibitive facility construction costs. The Interior and Finance ministries rejected proposals for a state-run facility, opposing the creation of another semi-governmental organisation.
Cremation in other countries
Cremation has long been established in Europe, with France permitting it since 1789 and Britain since 1884. Germany implemented regulations in 1934, and Spain in 1945. By 2007, cremation rates exceeded 50% in Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark, reaching 49% in Australia and 21% in the United States.
Neighbouring Greece, which legalised cremation in 2006 after initial discussions in 1987, opened its first facility in 2019.
