Filenews 1 January 2024 - by Dora Christodoulou
Geroskipou, the geographical area of the island that has been inextricably linked to the goddess Aphrodite, acquires again today a central role in the rich historical and archaeological tradition of Pafos.
The reason is the ambitious plan of the municipal authority for the organic integration of areas of the Municipality of archaeological and cultural interest into the tourist, commercial and social everyday life of the area, through the unification of archaeological, historical and mythological sites, which, although they are all located in its central core, operate until today fragmented and disconnected.
An ambitious plan is now in its final phase in the Municipality of Geroskipou, focusing on the regeneration of its historical core and the promotion of the rich archaeological and mythological dimension of the area. The municipal authority has completed the planning for the revival of the "Promenade of the goddess Aphrodite", which in antiquity, according to written texts by Strabo, started from today's Kato Vrysi, passed through the traditional flour mill, above the current schools of Geroskipou, ascended to the perennial terebinth trees and ended in today's historical core, behind the Municipal Palace.
Speaking to "F", the Cultural Officer of the Municipality, Nikos Palios, confirmed this ambitious plan and stressed that it has already been completed in terms of its licensing by the state departments and the procedures for securing the necessary funds, as emerged from the contacts at the competent state departments in Nicosia.
"The great project of connecting our archaeological and historical sites – according to the cultural officer – aims to create a thematic promenade that combines mythology, nature worship and exercise. The unification of the residential core of the Municipality of Geroskipou with its archaeological sites, located in the wider area of the center, was our big bet, which is not unrelated to the now implemented, after many years of delays, construction of the connecting road of the tourist area-central core, which will bring people from the tourist area to our historic center. The study that has been prepared for the unification of the historical center with Kato Vrisi and the Medieval Flourmill is moving in this direction.
The completion of 105 years since the construction of one of its most characteristic monuments, make once again the second most populous Municipality of the Pafos district, the epicenter of everything that is planned at the level of culture in Pafos in the coming period, with Kato Vrisi having already begun to emerge again in 2017 due to its use in the context of the events of the European Capital of Culture.
In this context, according to Mr. Palios, the municipal authority ensures the further utilization and promotion of this monument of the social and cultural life of Geroskipou. 105 years have passed since the construction of the stone-built arches and the laundry room at the exit of the spring known nowadays as "Kato Vrysi", which from ancient times until the first decades of the 20th century covered the water supply and irrigation needs of the community, while here the clothes of the residents were washed. In fact, folk tradition wants its water, which is channelled through an underground tunnel that passes through the courtyard of the church of Agia Paraskevi, as miraculous ("holy water"), since it was associated with the treatment of eye diseases.
The Cultural Officer of the Municipality of Geroskipou, Nikos Palios, points out that in very recent years, the area of Kato Vrisi has been associated with customs and traditions of the community. When Easter approached, and until the '40s, housewives used to take all the family's clothes to Vrysi, which they washed with "alusiva" and "fauta", he says. Here was also done the washing of the hair with which the bridal beds were made. In fact, before the construction of the Fountain of the Square, they came here to wash the wheat that would be used for the preparation of resi. We cannot determine with time accuracy when this area took the name Kato Vrysi. This name, however, seems to have begun to be used by the residents after 1917, that is, after the construction of the Fountain of the Square, apparently for the purpose of distinguishing the two fountains. The name Kato Vrisi is not previously found either in written sources or in oral testimonies.
The Cultural Officer of the Municipality of Geroskipou, states that the ancient toponym Ierokipia refers to a sacred grove that would have existed inside a mosque. The discovery in the middle of the 20th century. (1948) of a depository at Monagri, a few meters southeast of Kato Vrysi, containing hundreds of clay figurines, seems to prove the existence in Geroskipou, at least during the Archaic period, of a sanctuary dedicated to Aphrodite.
Based on ancient sources, as well as testimonies of foreign travellers and historians, he points out, the Sacred Gardens of Aphrodite must have been located south of Geroskipou, in the plain that spreads under the rocky plateau, on which the historic settlement is built, and extended to the sea. These were watered by springs that poured out from various parts of the rocky slope. From these gardens, according to the ancient Greek geographer Strabo, passed the procession of believers that ended at the Sanctuary of Aphrodite in Palaipaphos, on the occasion of the celebration of the "Aphrodisians", the annual festival in honour of the goddess.
