Pafos Live 22 July 2024
In times of heavy rainfall some of the houses of the village of Finikas, on the bank of Asprokremos, are not visible. Now that the level has dropped well below the usual waterline, the village has been fully "revealed". The former Turkish Cypriot village of Finikas, located on the banks of the Asprokremmos dam, despite being abandoned and dilapidated today, has a long history behind it. Its history goes back to the period when the King of England Richard the Lionheart invaded Cyprus, namely in the year 1191 A.D. Richard the Lionheart, after completely defeating the Byzantines, plundered the entire island and sold it to the "Knights Templar".
They settled in Nicosia to control Mesaoria, while they established the high military command of the Phoenix to control Pafos and Limassol.
During the Frankish occupation the village was called "Commandaria Della Finicha", as according to legend there was a phoenix there.
In 1974 only Turkish Cypriots lived in the village, who abandoned it after the Turkish invasion and since then it has remained unoccupied. Several of the buildings are half submerged in the dam of Asprokremmos.
