Kataliontas

Kataliontas is a village in Nicosia in Cyprus and it is situated 27 kilometers south of Nicosia, 74 kilometers northeast of Limassol, 49 kilometers northwest of Larnaca and 137 kilometers northeast of Paphos.

An abandoned settlement, approximately 1.5 kilometers from Analionta, to which it administratively belongs, Kataliontas was a small village inhabited by Turkish Cypriots in the era of the British domination of the island, namely between 1925 and 1959. After the intercommunal riots of the 1960s, the community was deserted and the Turkish Cypriots were transferred to Turkish enclaves that were created at that time.

The village has existed since the Byzantine years as well as later on during the Frankish occupation, while it became very popular as a settlement under the Venetian rule, which is also denoted by its name (liontari is “lion” in Greek). Kato Liontas was a feudal estate, along with Ano Lionta, and they had the lion as their symbol. The two villages were a Venetian feud with this animal of Evangelist Markos, which is a symbol and the coat of arms of the Venetians, giving its name to settlements (kato + leon is lower + lion in Greek). Later, at the time of the Ottoman domination, there are references to the Turkish Cypriot landowner, Hilmi Bey, who lit the candle in the chapel of St. George. It is also said that beneath the formerly renowned temple of Kataliontas, there was an underground tunnel that led to a crypt of the Christians during the persecutions. Today, at the site where the chapel was built, there are ruins, while the miraculous icon of Saint George is kept in the Archdiocese of Cyprus.