Monagri
Monagri is a village in the Limassol district of Cyprus and is located 21 km northwest from Limassol, 89 km west of Larnaca, 84 km southwest of Nicosia and 72 km east of Paphos.
A small koumantarochori (wine producing village) built at an altitude of 450 meters near the river Kouris, Monagri of the about 180 inhabitants is the region where wine grape varieties are cultivated, as well as citrus, carob, almond, olive trees and wheat. The rich wine-producing history of the settlement is still visible in the many jars and the three huge wine pressing stones that can be found in the narrow streets of the village. The workshop producing Commandaria closed at the end of the 1970s, but in 1987 a modern winery was again established in the village.
The name of the village comes from the words moni (meaning monastery in Greek) and agrin (small field, estate), meaning a small monastic estate, probably dating back to the Byzantine period. That is when the small settlement was probably established as a monastic dependency.
During the Frankish rule Monagri was the fief of a medieval family, probably the family of the noble Alexander Cappadocia. Later on, King of Cyprus James II took the village from him, by assigning it to another noble who was a supporter of the king, the Balian Salakcha. During the Turkish occupation, the villagers were forced to become crypto Christians in order to escape the persecutions of that time.
In the area of Monagri there are two important monasteries, the recently renovated monastery Panagia (Virgin Mary) Amasgous with excellent frescoes of the 12th, 13th and 16th century, situated to the southwest of the village and the monastery of Archangel Michael to the northwest of the village. In fact, since the villagers were forced to become Muslims and there was no Greek school in the village, they secretly sent their children to the monastery of Archangel Michael, where they were taught by one of the monks.
Besides the two monasteries in Monagri, there are also two churches, Agios Georgios (St. George) of the 16th century, renovated in 1872 and Panagia (Virgin Mary) Esokyras in the village center. According to the testimonies of residents, the temple was so named because there used to be several monasteries that operated in the region and they were all situated outside the village and all that there was in Monagri was a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary, giving the church its name (eso means inner and kyra refers to Virgin Mary). Before the building of the shrine, on the same site stood the ruins of an older church, while in the 1980s, the church was rebuilt and today it hosts an old icon of the Panagia (Virgin Mary) Eleousa.
Agios Georgios (Saint George) is the main church of the village, located to the southwest of Monagri. The single-aisled church was originally decorated with 15th century frescoes, but today the only preserved frescoes are those in the western part of the church vault. It is an interesting fact that the frescoes combine scenes from the Old Testament and the New.
Just outside the village of Monagri lies the hermitage-sanctuary with the cave where Agios Ioannis (St. John) the Monagritis lived. Here is also kept the skull of the Saint, who is celebrated on 4 th of June.