The cemetery was built around 1946, when the relatives of tuberculosis patients refused to receive the bodies of their relatives following their death at the Kyperounta Sanatorium, due to fears of social stigma for their family.
Following the uproar around the transmission of the disease, the deceased were not even welcome in the regular village cemetery, where they were buried during the first years of the Sanatorium’s operation.
And so, a space was selected approximately 4 kilometers from the village, in an area of 100 square meters, hidden among the pine trees, as a burial ground for those who died, forgotten by all. They were accompanied to their place of rest only by the priest of Kyperounta, a nurse, and two gardeners from the Sanatorium, who took care of the burial.
The cemetery was in use until the mid-1960s. After being abandoned for decades, it was recently restored.
Of the 26 people reported to have been buried in this cemetery, details of only 6 survive to this day, and their graves are preserved in the cemetery. Beyond the abomination of a lonely, painful death, these graves indicate the journey into oblivion that awaited the deceased.
The young ages of several of these unfortunate souls makes their fate even more tragic, while the case of three-year-old Titos (possibly a pseudonym, written without a last name in order to avoid stigmatization), remains shocking to this day.
Of course, 60 years later, tuberculosis is completely curable, and some are making efforts to restore the memories of the deceased, with the first step being the restoration of the deserted and forgotten cemetery, which until recently was hidden among the thick vegetation and pine trees.
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2.58 km
3.49 km
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8.23 km
