Vouni

Vouni lies 7km north of Agios Therapon in the Limassol district, at 800 metres and only 35km from Limassol city. The name describes the place: it means ‘small mountain’.

What the plague left

The village’s history reaches back to the Middle Ages, appearing on Venetian maps as ‘Voni’. There were once four settlements here. Three of them — Pera Vouni, Velonaka and Ais Mamas — were struck by the plague that reached Cyprus in 1692, leaving only Vouni, which survived and was held to have been protected by Saint John Prodromos. Everyone who came through the plague moved to Vouni afterwards.

The caves

On the southern slopes are two old caves thought to have served as catacombs — Panagia Can and Moulou. Inside, the rock formations catch enough daylight to show their colour.

The square

The village square, known as the Mesochoros or Plateia, is where the village gathers, with a café named ‘H Plateia’ on it and others serving coffee, breakfast and brunch, plus a taverna for lunch and dinner. The coffee shops do traditional Greek coffee and sweets.

Four museums and five churches

Walking the village takes you past the museums, the old olive oil mill and — further out — an abandoned school. There is a Byzantine museum holding a folk art collection, an oenological museum, the old olive mill, and the Venetian and Ottoman havouza, the water basin.

Timios Prodromos is the main church: stone walls, a carved stone entrance, 18th-century frescoes inside, and an ecclesiastical museum next door with icons dating to the 16th century. The village also has the chapel of St John the Russian, Chrysosotiros chapel and Agios Mammas chapel.