Birthday of a "celebrity" today in the Municipality of Ierokipia. The famous fountain of the central square of Geroskipou, the second most famous fountain in the province and possibly in the whole of Cyprus, after the Fountain of the Pegeiotisses, turns 109 years old today.
The now centuries-old fountain has been renovated and maintained a few years ago. The neoclassical style, a trademark of Geroskipou, has adorned 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 the Philokales Residents of the Holy Garden. July 25 Year 1917".
This fountain covered the water supply needs of the community for many years. 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 the pitchers and filled them for the house. There is also the animal watering trough which was always full of water that came running from a spring, he points out.
Every Thursday afternoon when there was a wedding, the 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 columns of Ionic order that supports a dome that surrounds archaic antefixes that are also the symbol of the Municipality of Geroskipou.
Until 1980, the fountain was the meeting point for the young people of Geroskipou, but also for street vendors who had it as a point of sale for their wares. Miltis with the mahalepi, Konstantis with the peanuts, others who baked wheat owls, sold clover, fish, watermelons and other goods, were characteristic figures of the area before the pedestrianization of the square occurred.
