The Holy Monastery of Archangel Michael has a very old story hidden in the depth of time. First references about the Monastery are made in 1660 and it is stated that the Archbishop of Cyprus Nikiforos during that period, renovated the Monastery. No references are made about its history before that, therefore we cannot know its date of construction.
The renovation that took place, was not with the help of solid materials, bricks were used instead, while the Church of the Monastery was stone built. At times, the Monastery was transformed and extended, until it got abandoned. A lot later, the current Abbot of the Kykkos Monastery Nikiforos, was interested in restoring the Monastery, and transformed it into its today’s state.
In the same place, in huge gardens with palm trees, the cultural foundation “Archangelos” is found. In a corner of the church’s surroundings, there is a well, and if you look with care, you will notice huge water pipes coming out from it, something that refers to a lot of water. The well has a story behind it. A story that takes us back into time. It takes us back to the period where Cyprus was feudal.
The whole area that began from Lakatamia, went to the international airport of Nicosia, covered the plain that was outside the defending walls of Nicosia, carried on east and included today’s Kaimakli, Pallouriotissa, Aglantzia, the valley that the university campus is built on, today’s National Park of Athalassa, continued towards Tseri and from there ended up back in Lakatamia, was divided into protectorate and was planted with a fruitful kind of palm tree which is the date palm.
Back then, many Arabs lived in Cyprus for this reason. As time went by, and with the increase of population, that created needs for housing, the huge areas of date palms started being limited. On the eastern part of Nicosia, today’s suburbia was built, while on the south Nicosia itself got extended and got out of its walls. The only area that remained planted with date palms was today’s Archangelos, and the Timvos area, until the international airport, and the protectorate area became an estate. The need for irrigation became the reason for the well to be dug out. The Turkish landowner, paid hundreds of small people and commanded them to gather water and to drain it off in the well.
A lot later, after the cultivation of the date palms became unprofitable, huge areas were abandoned, while others changed cultural functions (leftovers can be seen on the area where the university campus is situated), and the surroundings of the Monastery that covered a huge area were planted with probably the best raisins that can be produced by Cyprus called Soultanina. Unfortunately, even though this area came to the hands of the Kykkos Monastery, with Metochi Kykkou being the manager, the vines have been uprooted and the land was sold as plots. In “return”, the Metochi created a garden of quite a few hectares with palm trees, date palms and other trees. So be it.
