Filenews 20 August 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 recent decision of the Municipal Council of the newly established Municipality of East Pafos to rename it to the Municipality of Ierokipia, which comes in addition to the ambitious plan of the Municipal Authority for the organic integration of areas of the municipality with 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 at its core, operate to this day fragmentary and disconnected.
At the heart of the grand plan is the regeneration of its historical core and the promotion of the rich archaeological and mythological dimension of the area. The municipal authority of Geroskipou had 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 flourmill, above the current schools of Geroskipou, ascended to the perennial terebinth trees and ended in today's historical core, behind the City Hall.
Speaking to "F", the Mayor of East Pafos, Nikos Palios, who in his capacity as Cultural Officer of the Municipality of Geroskipou at the time, was directly involved in this ambitious planning, 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, he said, aims to create a thematic promenade that combines mythology, naturalism 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.
In this context, according to Mr. Palios, the municipal authority ensures the further exploitation and promotion of this monument of the social and cultural life of Geroskipou. 106 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.
On the occasion of the request to rename the Municipality of East Pafos to the Municipality of Ierokipia, its mayor states that the ancient toponym Ierokipia refers to a sacred grove that would exist inside a mosque. The discovery in the middle of the 20th century. (1948) of a depository at the site "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 stresses, 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.
Due to the fact that the archaeology of Geroskipou is little known, as its area has not been systematically researched, our knowledge of the ancient past of the place is still fragmentary, points out Mr. Palios. However, according to existing references, Kato Vrisi seems to have been the main source of the Holy Gardens.
