Flasou
Flasou is a village in Nicosia in Cyprus and it is situated 60 kilometers west of the homonymous city, 56 kilometers north of Limassol, 105 kilometers northwest of Larnaca and 94 kilometers northeast of Paphos.
Built at an altitude of 320 meters in the river valley Karkoti (Klariou) and very close to Evrihou and Linou, Flasou belongs to the geographical region of Solea and in the region are cultivated citruses, vegetables (mainly peas and potatoes), fruit trees, olive trees, grain crops, pulses and almonds. With beautiful traditional houses like the one of Georgiadis Socrates, founder of the High School of Solea and several facilities, cafe-restaurant, mini supermarket, butcher, coffee shops, two modern mills and small halloumi production units, the small community can offer the visitor all kinds of services.
The settlement is divided into two neighborhoods, Pano and Kato Flasou, as the first (Kourou-Flasou, as it was called) used to be inhabited by Turkish Cypriots, having a mosque, their own school and a cemetery, while Greek Cypriots lived in the lower settlement (Kato Flasou).
The village dates back to medieval times as a royal feudal estate, with the same name under the Frankish rule, and it belonged to a medieval family called de Flasse (or de Flasso) whose famous member was the noble Bartholomew de Flasse. Thus, one version states that the community was named by its then owner. Another version refers to the name Vlasou, since Vlasos was the first settler of the village. A more “extreme” theory says it got its name from the “flash flash” made by the many local watermills grinding grain.
However, the area was inhabited in ancient times, which can be confirmed by the tomb of the Hellenistic years found there in 1969, but also by the fact that the Fukasa mines were nearby. After the intercommunal riots of 1963-64 which prefaced the Turkish Cypriot mutiny, Turkish Cypriot residents left the village and moved to pure Turkish Cypriot settlements under instructions by Ankara to create strong Turkish Cypriot enclaves in Cyprus. After the Turkish invasion of 1974, the Kato Flasou accepted a number of displaced Greek Cypriots, who left for elsewhere in 1976. The main church is dedicated to Saint Dimitrianos and is found in the center of the village. The temple is a stone-built single-aisled 19th-century basilica of Gothic style, with a towering bell tower and 3 electronic bells.
The oldest church of the community, Agios Georgios Lambroforos of the 18th century (1722), is located in the east, next to the cemetery and protected by the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus. It is a vaulted, single-aisled building with a tiled roof, built with stone, but externally covered with plaster.
Another stone and whitewashed chapel, that of Kousouliotissas of the 18th century, 500 meters east outside the village, was once a monastery and was named by the man who donated the estate and was called Kousoulis or by the fact that the Virgin Mary cured infants here, the so-called “kousoulouthkia” in the Cypriot dialect.
The chapel of Agii Andronikos and Athanasia, a kilometer west of Flasou, dates back to the 19th century and houses the icon of Agia Mavri, which was in an old chapel that is no longer standing. On October 3rd, the litany of the icon of Agia Mavri takes place and on the 9th of October the Saints Andronikos and Athanasia are celebrated at the temple.
To the west and outside of the community, there is the stone church of Agios Georgios the Epitidiotis of the 17th century with a tiled roof, that was named after the “epitidia”, the pine tree leaves. Inside, there is a large hagiography of Saint George. Apart from April 23rd, the chapel also operates on the Sunday of Thomas, with a big feast and a large crowd visiting the church from the surrounding areas.
Due to the large production of many grains and olives, there are many ruins of watermills and olive mills preserved in Flasou. The mills of Siapa-Bei, Giorkou, Kosti Giannaki, and Molos are some of them. In the latter, there is a beautiful park next to the river Klario.
The stone bridge of the area is associated with a strange local tradition that says that if any newly married couple would ride a donkey from the village to Saint Epiphanios or vice versa, then the village to which they were headed would be destroyed. In 1950, Stavrinos and Theognosia defied the legend and crossed the bridge, heading to Agios Epifanios and from then on began the decline of the settlement, according to some locals.
The Heroes monument is dedicated to the fallen Georgios Antoniou, Georgios Charalambous and Andreas Katsiamis. From Flasou came Hadji-Petros Voskou who was a member of the Filiki Etairia and was arrested while carrying letters to Archbishop Kyprianos and executed by the Turks in 1821. Finally, in the beautiful community was constructed in the early 20th century the extension of the line of the Cypriot railway that reached all the way to Evrychou.