Agios Dimitrios Marathasas

Agios Dimitrios Marathasas is a village of the district of Limassol in Cyprus and is situated about 45 kilometers west of Limassol, 120 km west of Larnaca, 85 km southwest of Nicosia and 70 northeast of Paphos.

Built on the banks of the river Kryos, surrounded by a dense forest at an altitude of 900 meters, in the homonymous valley, Agios Dimitrios Marathasas is a small village belonging to the homonymous geographical region and which includes a cluster of 14 villages. In the village there are only a few crops because the land does not allow the development of agriculture. The plenty, broad-leaved vines with the veriko grapes can be only found in the courtyards of the houses in the village. The peculiar topography and mountainous terrain no longer pose a problem for the region, as the widening of the roads contributed to a significant improvement of the road network. As a result the community is easily accessible from Limassol and the nearby tourist resorts located in Troodos. Some of the older residents of the village began renovating their houses and returning either for vacations or for permanent living, giving life to a village of about 60 residents.

The name of Agios Dimitrios Marathasas comes from the homonymous local church of the village.

Marathasa was first inhabited during the Byzantine period, with the residents abandoning the coast and resettling in the mountains to protect themselves from the Arabic attacks of those times. The mountains Troodos offered a natural shelter, thus many villages were built around its towering peaks and forests. Actually, many villages were created due to the large monasteries, which pre-existed in the region.

The first references to the village Agios Dimitrios Marathasas come from the 15th century. According to sources dating back to 1460-1473, the Frankish king of the island James II gave a number of villages and their incomes to various nobles and this particular community was ceded to Onoufrios Reskouenses. During the Turkish occupation the village was deserted, probably due to epidemics and the looting by the Turks in the Troodos villages. In more recent history, Agios Dimitrios Marathasa up again in the late 18th century, when the area where today the village and then dependency of the Monastery of St. John the Illuminator was purchased by the family from the neighboring Three Olives. Then passed as a dowry to his sister Bishop of Paphos Chrysanthos when she married Kontzampasi Chatzitheodoto from Kaminaria.

The church of Agios Dimitrios is the main church of the village and was built in 1831 by Chatzitheodoto on the ruins of an older church. According to the tradition, during the reconstruction works in the foundations of the old church a human skull was found and was considered a holy relic – it is now believed that it cures headaches or fever, as it has been proved miraculous.

The small church of Metamorfosis (the Transfiguration) is located on a hill, is dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior and was rebuilt on the ruins of another, older chapel.

The chapel of Agios Georgios (Saint George) Kapouralli was rebuilt in the 1960s and was named after the Italian word caporale (junior officer). The root of the word is from the Latin caput meaning head and is found in the Cypriot dialect as kappos, namely the one in charge.

In the square of Agios Dimitrios Marathasas, the visitor will see one of the many pottery kilns, as well as the local traditional pottery museum Agiou Dimitriou Marathasas.