In the southeastern Mediterranean waters, there is a small island called Cyprus. A poet described it as "golden green leaf tossed into the sea” and was absolutely right. Cyprus, no matter how small it is, its beauties are so many that they are out of proportion compared to its size. It is characterized by a unique geological terrain on the planet, which gives to each geographical area of the island unique beauty. It is inhabited by people who even today have the intense characteristics of Xenios Zeus.
One such site is located north of Limassol and high up the Troodos Mountains in the geographic region of Pitsilia. The distance from town is just 30 kilometres. It is the mountain village Sykopetra. It is a small village, "stretched" as a straight line on a slope just below the peak of the mountain.
From the outskirts of the village is where the tributary of Arakapas begins, formed by the dozens of sources that exist in vertical slopes of the peaks that 'encircle' the village.
The deep ravine, is fully covered by tall trees, alnus other aquatic trees and plants. The slopes, dug with a lot of effort, form terraces, which in the past hosted vineyards and today host walnut, cherry, pomegranate and almond trees.
The architecture of the village has changed over its long course. Away from the coast and the Mameluke raiders and other pirates, they built their houses out of stone that was given to them so generously by nature. A characteristic structure of that time is the olive mill. A truly beautiful monument, suspected as the most ancient olive mill on the island. The truth is that we have not seen any other mill alike in Cyprus and it remains untouched waiting for someone to decide what its future will be. East of the village there are some houses that "betray" the architecture of the immediately preceding centuries. Some houses are built of stone mixed with bricks. This technique of construction is not found anywhere else.
In the village center, there is a Church of Agios Dimitrios which is the main church. This is a relatively new building, built in Byzantine style, cruciform with no dome and a tiled roof.
A few meters away from the church there is an old reservoir from which the residents irrigated and still irrigate their orchards. North from the reservoir, there is a very beautiful place, which seems to be transformed. A faucet in the shade of tall trees, offers water to travelers and a sightseeing spot is ideal for observing a large part of the stream, since it is at the beginning and at quite a higher point from it.
When walking along the narrow and steep streets of Sykopetra, you can not not notice the trouble and toil it took for all of this stone mountain to be made suitable for habitation. Each square meter, is dug into the rock. The houses are built with stone extracted from the mountain. Each garden needed thousands of hours of work to be planted and even more to bear fruit.
In order to understand the history of the village we should "travel" in time. To go back to the time when Cyprus was divided into 12 kingdoms. The then settlement Sykopetra, did not have this name yet, belonged to the Kingdom of Amathus and was located on the border with the Kingdom of Tamassos.
The beautiful daughter of the King of Tamassos, Nausica, used to travel to the border and go to the top of the mountain that dominates the entire valley of the river, spending, endless hours with her cortege and their galloping horses. During one of these youth games, the princess lost her expensive ring. It fell off her finger and she was unable to do anything to get it back, she watched it hit the ground and bouncing over the huge stones and getting lost in the depths of the ravine.
Her cortege asked the help of the residents of the settlement to search for the ring. The princess shouted from the peak “Pick that stone up”, “pick the other stone up”. The Sun hid behind the peaks of the mountains of Troodos and the ring was nowhere to be found. Nausica was desperate, so she took the road of return, trying to forget the gift offered by her father and its incredible value.
From Nausica’s phrase, the village got its name.
For someone to reach Sykopetra, there are many ways. Two of them are amazingly beautiful and they start from two different districts. From Nicosia through Palaichori and from Limassol through Germasogeia. The two journeys will take you through the beautiful geological forms and forestry systems, which are unique on the island and will provide you with unique experiences and adventures.
