Filenews 25 July 2023 - by Dora Christodoulou
Birthday today for one of the most famous and photographed landmarks in the Municipality of Geroskipou. The famous fountain of the Municipality, the second most famous fountain in the province and possibly in the whole of Cyprus, after the fountain of Peyiotissa, turns 106 today.
The perennial fountain has been renovated and maintained a few years ago. The neoclassical style trademark of Geroskipou adorns the square of the then community and now the Municipality since July 25, 1917. The fountain was built by the craftsman of the community Michalis Kontos. It has the shape of a crown and bears the inscription: "Expense of Philokali Residents of the Holy Garden. July 25 year 1917".
This fountain covered for many years the water supply needs of the community. In 2004, the Fountain of the Square was declared a "listed building" by decree of the Minister of the Interior.
Teacher Andreas Konstantinidis told "F" that the fountain was built in 1917 for the needs of the residents. The women of the village came with pitchers and filled them for home. There is also the animals' watering trough that was always full of water coming from a spring, he points out.
Every Thursday afternoon when there was a wedding, relatives would come accompanied by violin and lute and wash the wheat that would make the resi, he says. It is a unique building with seven ionic columns that supports a dome that has around it archaic ends, which is also the symbol of the Municipality of Geroskipou, he pointed out.
Until 1980 the fountain was the meeting point of the young people of Geroskipou, but also of street vendors who had it as a point of sale of their goods. Miltis with the mahalepi, Konstantis with the pistachios, others who baked wheat birds, sold clover, fish, watermelons and other goods, were characteristic figures of the area before the pedestrianization of the square.
