Fasoula Paphou

Fasoula Paphou is a small village in the province of Paphos and it is situated 29 kilometers east of the homonymous city, 64 kilometers west of Limassol and 147 kilometers southwest of Nicosia.

Built at an altitude of 130 meters at the boundaries of the Oriton forest and with its settlement divided on both banks of Diarizos river, Fasoula Paphou has about 50 inhabitants and is a community that, like many of the Cypriot countryside, has been gravely affected by urbanization. It is also one of the villages that suffered great damage from the 1953 earthquake that struck Paphos, with many residents leaving the area after the destruction of the settlement.

In this small village is the church of Agioi Saranda, which celebrates on 9th of March and very close to it a small mosque with a minaret, remnants of the recent past. At one time, the village was mixed, inhabited by both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, but after the Turkish invasion of 1974 and the mutual exchange of Denktas-Kleridis, the latter left for the Turkish-occupied northern areas and Greek Cypriot refugees came in their place. As a matter of fact, a story the visitor will hear from the locals says that a Turkish Cypriot, after the invasion, ran and hid in the forest so that the Turkish soldiers would not make her go live somewhere else, since she did not want to leave her village. Today, the elderly woman still lives there.

Fasoula Paphou is located in the Mammonia complex, a rare complex of sediments from the deep sea and volcanic rocks, remnants of a continental and oceanic cortex, studied by local and foreign geologists who arrive in the area.

One of the nature attractions that is just outside the community is the Rocks of Hasaboulia, or “Kourtelorotsos”, an impressive natural landscape with massive stones of recrystallized limestone of coral origin that dominate the landscape in the middle of the road. A living legend that survives to this day and was a source of fear for the inhabitants and the passers-by during the British occupation, Hasaboulia was a family of Turkish Cypriots who came originally from the Episkopi of Limassol and during the British occupation moved to Mamonia. There, their criminal activity was intense and caused many problems to the locals, as they committed many thefts, murders, rapes and kidnappings. The three brothers, in the years of their activity, passed from forty villages in the province of Paphos and the province of Limassol, scattering terror. The Rocks of Hasaboulia, a well-known location for climbers, is the point where the three siblings hid and attacked passers-by and can be found on the road shortly after Kouklia and on the old road that connects Mamonia with Agios Georgios Pafou, Trachypedoula and Kidasi.

Fasoula Paphou, also known as Fasoula of Kelokedaron, is very close to Mamonia (2 km), to the abandoned village of Souskiou, Archimandrita (7 km), as well as Nikokleia (10 km).