Kissonerga

The village of Kissonerga is located 7 kilometers north of Paphos in the homonymous province of Cyprus, and is about 150 kilometers southwest of Nicosia and 70 kilometers northwest of Limassol.

Built at an altitude of about 70 meters above sea level, Kissonerga carries a five-century history, and as the archaeological finds in the Prehistoric Settlements of Kissonerga show, the village has been inhabited since the Chalcolithic era. Recently at the “Skalia” location of the community of Kissonerga, the University of Manchester brought to light craft facilities and cereal processing for beer production by the local ancestors.

Chrisonera – as it was mentioned in the medieval maps, the name of Kissonerga, or Chrysonera (a paraphrase of the word gold in Greek), was connected in the past with the abundant water that flowed in the area and was the “gold” of the community, as according to the locals it contributed to the agricultural and economic development of the place. Finally, the most reasonable explanation for the origin of the name of the settlement indicates that there is a lot of ivy in the area, so that from the name of the plant (kissos in Greek), as the first part of the name, and the second part from the word “erga (meaning works)”, linguistically emerged the present name of the community.

Today, Kissonerga is one of the most developing villages in the province of Paphos. On the one hand, the old neighborhood with the narrow alleys and the traditional small houses, and on the other hand the modern quarters with the luxurious large houses, the big hotel units, the taverns and the international restaurants. Here the old and the young coexist, while the community, which is constantly being modernized, is number one on the island in the field of recycling. In front of the plentiful banana crops, the visitor can cool off on one of the beaches of the village, such as Cypria bay beach of the homonymous hotel, as well as tour the archaeological sites of the area.

In addition, the ecclesiastical monuments of the settlement consist of the two great churches of the Metamorphosis tou Sotiros (Transfiguration of the Saviour) and Agios Kononas, as well as a chapel dedicated to Agia Konona, the small chapel of Agia Marina, a stone’s throw from Pegia. To the southwest of Kissonerga are also the ruins of a church dedicated to the Saints Zinaida and Filonilli. Finally, to the north of the village there are the ruined churches of Agios Nikolaos and Agia Paraskevi.

Kissonerga is easily reached, and if you come by car, it is right after the villages of Chlorakas and Leba, in the direction of the famous Coral Bay.