The church dedicated to the Saints Constantinos and Eleni in Tochni is built above the “Arkatzin” river. This river divides the village into two and the church is the meeting point of the two sides.
It ended up being in today’s state after 3 extensions that have took place, as well as many renovations. The settlers claim that the first church that existed was the one in the mane of Agia Eleni, whose ship was driven ashore at the mouth of Vasilopotamos, a few kilometres south of Tochni, and after she visited the area, she built a church endowing it with expensive religious items.
In the village there was a great amount of snakes and Agia Eleni offered the settlers many cats to kill them. The reality is that in the church area there are dozens of cats still today.
Another strange fact, that some people try to call it a mystery, is the presence of a well in front of the main entrance of the church. The well branches into many canals in all directions. This can be seen in many churches in Cyprus. It was a common phenomenon for monks to put wells in place in the monasteries’ yards even though the water they gathered was not enough, thus they created canals to have a greater flow of water towards the central well.
We asked about the well and some people told us that “no one knows the reason it is there”. Others said that it was used during the Othoman period so that women could hide in it from the Turks.
The most possible is scenario is the first one. It was an attempt to create a well for water supplies that ended up being a failure, and it remained there.
