Agia Marinouda

Agia Marinouda in Cyprus is a village in the province of Paphos and it is situated 8 km southeast of the homonymous city, 66 km northwest of Limassol and 149 km southwest of Nicosia.

Built at an altitude of 125 meters, in an idyllic location and on a hill overlooking the sea, Agia Marinouda with its approximately 250 inhabitants enjoys an exceptional climate characterized by the cool breeze blowing during the summer months in the area. The newly built houses that have been built over the last few decades have given a boost to this small settlement, as many new couples or foreigners have begun buying or renting houses, villas and apartments, either as summer cottages or as permanent residences. After all, the climate, the tranquility and the proximity to Paphos, make Agia Marinouda an ideal place to visit or live in.

The cultivation of black and white mulberry, which is the food of silkworms, was the main occupation of the locals in previous years, while the production of silk was favored by the existence of a silk factory near the village. Another typical plant in Agia Marinouda was once the hemp fiber, native or cultivated, from which the fibers used in the textile industry and in the fabrication of rope and other materials were produced. When the cannabis was banned and the silk factory shut down, the residents sought work in nearby Paphos and Geroskipou.

After the Turkish invasion of 1974 and the exchange of populations, the mixed settlement was converted into a purely Greek Cypriot village, as its Turkish Cypriot inhabitants were forced to move to the occupied northern areas of the island.

The central church, with its beautiful courtyard built in 1985, is dedicated to Agia Marina, from which the village took its name (the community was named Marinouda rather than Marina due to its small size). According to tradition, at the site where the stone-built church was built, there was an older chapel dating back to the 1920s that collapsed. Another religious attraction in the settlement is the remaining ruins of the chapel of Saints Constantine and Helen.

Agia Marinouda, which borders with Koloni, Achelia, Marathounta and Konia, is ideal for excursions to the villages of the province’s inland, as well as to the beautiful western beaches of Cyprus.