Anna was one of the thousands of refugees who fled the island of Chios during the Second World War and were dispersed throughout Asia Minor and the Middle East seeking sanctuary, food and safety. Anna found refuge in Cyprus.

Even before the German occupation of 1941, the inhabitants of Chios were already suffering from a severe famine. Thousands of Chians decided to abandon their homes and all they knew, to save their lives. The journey across the treacherous waters of the Aegean was extremely hazardous as many fled under cover of night on small wooden boats that were barely seaworthy. One of those refugees was Anna. Her journey of escape eventually led her to Cyprus, where she stayed and worked for seven years.

Anna Markou (née Fassolas) was born on the 9th December in 1915 in the northern village of Leptopoda on the island of Chios. She was the youngest child in a blended family of twelve children.

Like so many other young girls in the region, Anna was uneducated and illiterate and destined to endure a life of servitude. At the tender age of eight years old, she was sent to work in the main town of Chios as a ‘thoula’ (a child maid) for a prominent Chian family. She worked long hours in exchange for some food, lodgings and a meagre wage. Unfortunately, this wealthy family lacked any real compassion or empathy for young Anna. She was often abused and exploited by the lady of the house suffering greatly until her father (upon hearing of the horrible truth of her servitude) came to rescue her. It is unknown how long Anna stayed with this family, but the experience was certainly brutal and left a lasting impression on her.

Anna was glad to be back home in Leptopoda where she enjoyed helping her mother and working in the fields. In 1930, her life took a dramatic turn when she was forced into an arranged marriage with a man who was a few years older. She was only fifteen years old.

During that time, it was common for daughters from poor families to be married off at a young age. Anna’s parents perhaps hoped that her husband would provide a better life for her. In any case, it was one less mouth for them to feed.

Anna’s husband, Mihalis Koutsouras was from the neighbouring village of Agrelopo. Mihalis was a kind and good man, who loved Anna deeply but he was extremely jealous of her and somewhat over-protective. Anna did not love Mihalis but did her best to accept him as her husband and settle into her new home. Moving to Agrelopo was a fateful decision for Anna and destined to change her life, for it was in this village where she first set eyes on a man who would truly capture her heart; a handsome young man named Dimitrios Markou. Their forbidden love was undeniable and their fateful meeting was meant to be.

Married life was indeed difficult for young Anna. Her husband Mihalis lacked motivation to work and therefore struggled to provide the bare essentials, such as food. Anna was desperate. She knew that working as a servant was the only way she could survive and earn a living. In 1936, aged twenty-one, she gained permission from her husband to go and find work as a servant. First travelling to Cesme, Turkey which was 9 miles away from Chios she travelled another 54 miles to Smyrna and found employment as a maid for a French family.

Anna worked hard, to support both her husband and her own family back in Chios. It is not known exactly how long Anna worked in Smyrna, but during the late 1930’s the famine in Greece was spreading fast and death from hunger was inevitable.

With the outbreak of World War Two, the suffering of the inhabitants of Chios intensified greatly, particularly after the Germans occupied the island on the 5th of May in 1941. They were faced with two options; stay and starve to death or try and escape from the island. Anna and her husband Mihalis, along with thousands of other locals, decided to escape. The population of Chios in 1940 was around 75,000. Some experts believe that almost half of the population had fled during the war.

It is assumed that Anna and her husband Mihalis left Chios in early April 1942, bound for Turkey. They left in the dead of night on a boat which was overcrowded with around 300 frightened men, women and children. The journey across the Aegean was precarious to say the least and in the dark treacherous waters near Cesme on the westernmost Turkish coast, their boat suddenly hit a reef and capsized. Most of the refugees fell into the water and drowned. Miraculously, Anna (who could not swim) stayed afloat by clinging onto a piece of wood that had broken off the boat. Mihalis, saw her and swam over to his wife, rescued her by placed her safely onto a nearby reef with the other survivors. He told her to stay there until help arrived from nearby Cesme. Considered being a good swimmer, Mihalis was swept away by a strong current and soon his body sank beneath the water, never to be found. His selfless act of bravery had saved Anna’s life and perhaps others as well.

Anna was one of only a few survivors that day including the captain of the boat. They all huddled together, shivering on the jagged and dangerous reef, enduring the battering of the sea and the relentless pounding of the stinging and overpowering waves. If the shipwreck didn’t kill her, Anna was certain that the waves would eventually consume them all. At one point, the captain attempted to abandon the survivors, but Anna warned him that she would personally drown him if he dared to leave them behind. Withstanding the bitterly cold winds and stripped naked, their skin red raw from the abrasive power of the waves, the survivors huddled together to keep warm, holding each other tight to avoid becoming another fatality of the sea.

In what seemed like an eternity, the survivors were finally rescued by the Turks after an agonising twenty-four hours. Young and beautiful Anna, now widowed, remained in Cesme for three months where she found work with a Turkish family. Apparently, many local Turks propositioned her and made advances towards her but all she could think about was Dimitrios Markou whom she first met in Agrelopo.

Dimitrios was serving with the Greek army in Palestine in 1942. Upon hearing the news of Anna’s shipwreck and tragedy, he immediately took leave and made his way to Cesme to be by her side. Reunited, their love grew stronger; their meeting was meant to be.

After three months in Turkey, the refugees were sent by boat to resettle in various parts of Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. Anna was sent to Cyprus. Dimitrios went back to his camp in Palestine but vowed to see her again one day. Little did Anna know at the time that she would stay in Cyprus for seven years in what was to become another most remarkable and fascinating chapter in her life.

Upon their arrival in Cyprus, the refugees were quarantined for two weeks in an unknown location. They found the Cypriots to be friendly people and very supportive of them. As a country under British control, Cyprus accepted and resettled refugees from Allied countries such as Greece, giving them security, employment and above all, hope. Quarantine seemed strange to the refugees, for they were not diseased, only hungry and displaced. After quarantine, the refugees were scattered to various locations on the island such as Larnaca, Limassol and the Troodos mountains. Anna was sent to the mountainous village of Prodromos where she found work at the magnificent ‘Hotel of Kings’ known as Berengaria (Verengaria). It was now the end of summer in 1942.

The Berengaria hotel stood majestically at the top of the Troodos Range near the village of Prodromos. Boasting 360 degree panoramic views of the landscape, it was both a summer and winter retreat, exclusive to a select group of very wealthy guests. Its official opening was on the 10th June in 1931. Tennis courts, swimming pools, walking trails, horse riding and skiing, night clubs are just a few of the services offered. One of the main attractions was the casino. The hotel catered for a diverse range of interests and desires. Child minding facilities and dining specifically for children were an added feature. Regular American style dances were booked months in advance. The Knights Club was a unique entertainment hub of this hotel. Nothing was overlooked.

The interior design of the hotel was Art Deco, with furniture sourced from locations such as France, England and Italy. The linen was made from the finest textile manufacturers and all items were monogrammed with the Berengaria logo. The uniforms were designed specifically for the hotel and also monogrammed. This was also true of the crockery, cutlery, and serviettes. Berengaria was designed to be nothing but the best, not only in Cyprus, but also in the Middle East.

This prestigious and exclusive hotel was built and owned by Mr Ioannis Kokkalos; a prominent Greek Cypriot contractor and visionary from Prodromos. He managed and ran the hotel with his sons, Georgios and Kostakis (Takis). The hotel was designed by British architect Walter Henry Clarke for Mr Kokkalos. Situated high up in the mountains of Troodos (1400 metres) the hotel was named after Queen Berengaria, wife of King Richard I of England (also known as Richard the Lionheart). Apparently, Mr Kokkalos decided on the name after discovering that the royal couple had spent their honeymoon in Prodromos in May 1191.

Ioannis Kokkalos was born in the village of Prodromos in 1900 and married to Eleni (family name unknown) from the neighbouring village of Pedoulas. Unlike many Cypriots at the start of the twentieth century, Mr Kokkalos was highly educated. He completed primary and secondary school in Cyprus and then went to Egypt to study engineering. He returned to Cyprus in 1920, and began work as a supervising engineer with the American-owned Cyprus Mining Company (CMC). Around the same time, he also started to work in construction as a contractor.

Mr Kokkalos was indeed a visionary. He realised that the idyllic and cool mountain environment around Mount Troodos was the perfect holiday destination for anyone who wished to escape the heat of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern summer. He set his mind to build the grandest hotel in all of Cyprus. No expense was spared. He gathered all his funds (borrowing some money from acquaintances) and employed hundreds of locals to build his luxury hotel using locally-found timbers and stone. Construction began in 1927 but was halted after two years in 1929 due to a shipping strike and a lack of iron. The cessation of work caused cracks to appear in the walls of the main building so they had to be torn down and rebuilt from scratch. The construction was finally completed in 1931, the same year the hotel was opened.

The main building had an area of 4,500 square meters and consisted of eighty rooms that were spread across two wings. There was also a guest house, a large opulent dining room, billiard hall and games room, dance hall and eventually an outdoor pool. It is estimated that the cost of the building only was around over £21,000, an extraordinary amount of money at that time. The interior and furnishings were a further cost probably in the tens of thousands of pounds.

During the war, the patronage for the hotel had slowed down considerably, so Mr Kokkalos (with the support of the British government) took the opportunity to open his hotel to the refugees from Greece, offering them work and shelter. The refugees worked in the kitchen as well as carrying out various maintenance and domestic duties.

When Anna arrived in Prodromos, it was the middle of the ‘cherry picking’ season during the Cypriot summer. Initially, the food at the grand hotel became a contentious issue for the refugees as they were constantly being fed pork which distressed and angered them. Anna’s brother-in-law Stavros, (Mihalis’ brother) was the cook at the hotel and he protested against the poor quality ‘British’ food by tipping over the cooking pots and refusing to cook any more pork unless changes were made. The refugees wanted a variety of food plus money to sustain them and help them to regain some dignity and independence. This strategy worked. The food soon was varied and each person received five British pounds per month.

Towards the end of 1942, patrons began to return to the hotel and Anna’s role was defined by the owner. In fact, Mr Kokkalos was so impressed with Anna, that he entrusted her with not only the role of Head Housekeeper, but more importantly to be nanny to his third and youngest son Taso (Anastasios). Taso’s mother was ill and unable to fulfil her parental duties, so Anna’s role was crucial to the emotional, psychological and physical development of the young boy. She loved Taso as her own and he loved her in return, regarding her as his second mother. Looking after Taso was something that Anna always talked about, reflected on and treasured, even decades after she left Cyprus.

Anna enjoyed working at the Berengaria, the grandeur of which she had never seen before. Mr Kokkalos was fastidious and knowledgeable in every aspect of the hotel, including its finances and logistics. He wanted the hotel to be the best in the region. By all accounts, he certainly achieved his aim.

During his active duty in Palestine, Dimitrios visited Cyprus on a number of occasions to be by Anna’s side. Although Anna was widowed, her true love was Dimitrios. She was also grateful to have the company of Soultana (Dimitrios’ sister), her nieces Irene and Maria as well as her ‘goumbara’ Maria. When the war ended in 1945, most of the refugees, including her relatives and friends went back to Chios. Anna, on the other hand, decided to stay on in Cyprus.

The opportunity afforded to Anna whilst in Cyprus is one that is difficult to comprehend. Despite her inability to read and write Greek, let alone learn and converse in English, she was able to work in what may be described as a managerial position, purely because of her integrity, hard work ethic and determination. Her hardships were not going to stop her. Mr Kokkalos, who saw this drive in her, took a gamble that paid off. The many dignitaries who frequented the hotel during her time there also noted these qualities in Anna. They included King Farouk of Egypt, the Israeli Prime Minister, Ezer Vaisman, Winston Churchill and various aristocratic English tourists and other important official war time dignitaries.

One such dignitary was Sir Walter Smart, who during the war was Britain’s Chief Intelligence Officer. So impressed was he with Anna, that he offered her a job at the British Embassy in Egypt. She accepted the offer, but unfortunately, the job was not to her liking. Sir Walter Smart was a true gentleman, but his wife unfortunately, had attributes that Anna did not like so after only a year in Egypt, she packed her bags and returned to Cyprus and the Berengaria, where she resumed her duties as Head Housekeeper and nanny to Taso.

In 1948, after almost seven years in Cyprus Anna decided to return back home to Chios.

A year later, she finally married her true love, Dimitrios Markou on February 13th 1949, almost twenty years after they first met.

In 1960, Anna and Dimitrios and their three young children made the agonising decision to leave Chios and Greece and immigrate to Australia. They settled in the Virginia market garden areas, north of Adelaide where they had a very difficult and hard life.

Never forgetting Cyprus, or the Berengaria, Anna was determined to return and find out what happened to the Kokkalos family. Whenever she met any person who originated from Cyprus, she always asked them ‘Have you heard of the Hotel Berengaria?’ Most responses sadly let her down, until one breakthrough brought tears to her eyes. At long last in 1981, contact was made with Taso, the young boy she looked after in the 1940s. Anna and her daughter Maria in 1985 then made the trip to Cyprus to meet him and his family. Their reunion was indeed emotional. Maria recalls that the most heart-warming moment was witnessing Taso’s overwhelming love and devotion to her mother Anna. He constantly held her tight, acknowledging her role in his young life, affirming his love and admiration for the care that she had given him as a young boy so many years ago. He was indeed thrilled to once again meet her for he was, as he constantly declared, ‘happy to be reunited with his beloved second mother’.

Mr Kokkalos managed the hotel until he was quite old and frail. After he died, his three sons, Georgios, Kostas and Anastasis (Taso) took over the management of the hotel but unfortunately, ongoing financial disputes forced the closure of Berengaria Hotel. Unlike his brothers, Taso gained his PhD and became a notable researcher in viticulture, working mainly in Nicosia. During the 1970’s, the most turbulent and tragic times in Cyprus’s modern history, Taso gained control of the hotel, despite his limited experience in hotel management. Unfortunately, its grand doors were closed forever in 1984, one year before Anna’s return to her beloved Cyprus.

Heartbroken to discover that family disagreements and squabbles led to the sudden closure of the hotel, Anna could not fathom what went wrong. Entry into the hotel was now prohibited, however Taso made an exception and took his beloved Anna and her daughter Maria to see the hotel both inside and out. Anna was shocked at what she saw. It was a sight that she never expected. The glory, grandeur, opulence and symbol of success that it represented was now a decaying, unmaintained, mouldy mess, a far cry from its superb heyday.

Anna never returned to Cyprus, but she maintained contact with Taso many years after. She lived long enough to see all her children and grandchildren get educated and develop successful careers. She was proud to see them get married and raise children of their own. She died in 2013, aged ninety-eight.

In 2019, Anna’s eldest son Petros and her daughter Maria with her family and friend Lynne, travelled to Cyprus to meet Taso and his lovely family and visit the ruins of Berengaria. A trip of indescribable love, emotion, fascination and sadness, on so many levels, but especially for the loss of the monumental grandness there once was on the pinnacle of Cyprus’ natural beauty, Troodos Ranges.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

I’d like to thank Maria (Markou) Rologas for her extensive written contribution to this story and allowing me to publish her mother’s story on my Tales of Cyprus page. I’d like to also thank Maria for scanning her precious family photos.

One of my regrets in life is not visiting the Berengaria (Verengaria) hotel when I visited Cyprus as a young man in 1983. Then again, I used to think that these wonderful historical monuments will always be there and I’ll get my chance to visit them another day. Boy, how wrong could I be! There is certainly truth to the sayings, ‘there is no time like the present’ and ‘seize the day’.

I did manage to visit the Berengaria last year (2019) and walk amongst the ruins. Like so many other visitors that day, I was deeply saddened to see the demise of this once grand, and beautiful hotel. These days, there are so many myths, rumours, urban legends and ghost stories doing their rounds on social media, I am certain the facts have been replaced by pure fiction and curious speculation.