A minor masterpiece of modern church building in Nicosia, by one of Cyprus' most distinguished architects, is being ruined by unsympathetic alterations.

Neoptolemos Michaelides is widely regarded as the father of twentieth-century architecture in Cyprus. Until his untimely death in a construction accident, he designed a large number of important modern buildings, dating back to the early '50s. His architecture is greatly appreciated both in Greece and Cyprus for its clarity and poetic simplicity coupled with an honest structural expression. One of his most important completed buildings is the church of Apostolos Varnavas and Saint Makarios (shown above) in Nicosia, designed and constructed during the mid- 1970s.

In terms of construction, form, space and illumination, the church is a tour de force. It is both majestic and yet beautifully plain, impressive and yet incredibly mystical. There is pure drama in the simple but dynamic marriage of curves, counter curves and vaults. Natural light is channelled through the openings in an unearthly way, transforming the interior into an intensely spiritual space.

Unfortunately, the church is now being systematically ruined by a number of irreversible `decorative interventions' inspired, assigned and supervised by the local church council with the blessing of His Beatitude the Archbishop of Cyprus. The building is constructed entirely from fairfaced concrete, the moulds of which were meticulously selected and sandblasted so that the final finish reveals the rich pattern of the timber surface. The new works involve completely plastering over the fairface texture and subsequently painting all surfaces white, a damaging process already completed on the exterior walls and ceilings. It is also planned to 'redecorate' the campaniles, interior walls and interior vaulted ceilings. Protests against this irreversible plastering process were dogmatically dismissed by church officials who have decreed that 'no Christian Orthodox church is tb be of fairface concrete finish'. There is an additional proposal to cover the exterior surface of the two parabolic vaults with tiles to `make it look more like a church'. A pair of inappropriately scaled crosses have already been positioned on the crown of the exterior vault.

Inside, the picture is equally bleak. The space where the high vault meets the upper part of the altar wall was intended to be filled with an abstract tableau representing the power of the truth. Instead, a huge, garish red cross formed by coloured glass was judged more `appropriate'. Furthermore, since the original lighting conditions restricted the use of video cameras during wedding ceremonies, the interior is now illuminated by a series of fussily opulent Venetian chandeliers.

The Architects Association of Cyprus, together with the Pan-Cyprian Organization of Architectural Heritage, and Michaelides himself while alive, were united in vehement opposition to these patently unsympathetic interventions. Despite an energetic campaign, including letters to the Archbishop of Cyprus and numerous articles in the newspapers and magazines, all efforts to prevent further modifications have so far been in vain. For an institution whose authority is based on its ethical substance, the church's policy of choosing simply to ignore the views of professional architectural associations is, to say the least, outrageous. Further developments are anxiously awaited.