Analiontas
Analiontas is a village in Nicosia in Cyprus and it is situated 25 km south of Nicosia, 76 km northeast of Limassol, 48 km northwest of Larnaca and 138 km northeast of Paphos.
Built at an altitude of 380 meters among wild vegetation almost in the center of the island, Analiontas of the approximately 300 inhabitants with the centenarian olives dating back to the Frankish rule and the plenty underground waters of the Garyllis river, is an area where olives, grain crops, vegetables and fruit trees are grown. A settlement with a rich historical past and a remarkable geographic location, it has attracted many foreigners who have built new houses, giving the area a new breath of life, with the local tavern offering local mezedes for those who reach the semi-mountainous community, which is located very close to the capital.
The village has been inhabited since ancient times, as according to the findings of the archaeological excavation at the “Kourvelos” site, tools dating back to the Neolithic period (4,800 BC) were found, of the same approximate era as the Neolithic settlement of Chirokitia in Larnaca. Also in the Petrera site, five hundred meters southwest of the village, there was a settlement, the ruins of which are large piles of stones (hence the name “Petrera”, from petra that means stone in Greek), while in the “Mazovounos” Roman tombs were found, one of them with invaluable vases and gold jewellery.
In the Byzantine years, as well as in the later years of the Frankish rule, Analiontas was famous for the many miracles of Saint George, a church which is now abandoned, while in the most recent history of the place, the community was a mixed one with Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot residents up until the intra-communal riots of the 1960s.
The name of the village derives from the verb “analyse”, as in the period when copper procession was flourishing in the ancient kingdom of Tamassos, there were also areas where “minerals” were analysed, ie copper and gold processing plants. Indeed, up to this day there are piles of rocks as remnants of the processing of minerals. Another version regarding the origins of the name refers to the feudal estate, Ano Lionda and the neighboring estate of Kato Lionda, the neighboring Kataliondas, with the lion as its emblem. The two villages were a Venetian feud with the lion, the animal of Evangelist Markos – a symbol and coat of arms of the Venetians.
The main church of Analiontas, located in the east, is dedicated to Saint Marina and was built in 1917 at the foundations of an older 16th century temple. Inside it is adorned with a wood-carved shrine and an episcopal throne of the 18th century and the ancient icon of the saint.
The most important attraction in the settlement is the Monastery of Archangel Michael Analiontas, which is located on a hill in the southwest of the village and dates back to the middle of the 18th century and is a protected monument of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus. The stone church of Agios Nektarios functions as a chapel in the courtyard of this beautiful monastery. Also, another monastery close to and belonging to the village of Kabia is the Monastery of the Virgin Mary, which was established in 1993.
Another gem of the community is the Ecclesiastical Museum of Analiontas, which includes icons and sacred heirlooms from the church of Agia Marina, sacred vessels and vestments dating back from the 16th to the 20th century.
The monument to the Fallen, a stone column with two marble slabs, was erected in honor of the dead and missing of the Turkish invasion of 1974 and not only (Christakis Charalambous, Andreas Prodromou, Andreas Kosti Achilleos, Kyriakos Jordanous Paraskevas), and there is also a small forest with a marble monument dedicated to Giorgos Hatzinikolaou, missing since the operation of Attilas.