Since ancient times Omodos is renowned for its superb grapes and tasty wines. It is reported in Frank documents that the feudal lord Homodeus lived in the region and it is very probable that the village was named after him. Out of the adverb "omou" (with) and the word "odos" (street), Omodos was formed. Many streets that lead to the surrounding villages start from the village. The inhabitants of Koupetra, after observing a light at the opposite mountain every night, went to see what was going on and found that the light was coming out of a thick and unapproachable, prickly bush in order to get through it they had to cut it down, telling one another "me to modo sou" (meaning "take your time, act carefully"), until they finally entered a cave with a wooden cross and a candle inside. The village is found marked in old maps as Homodos, Homocios, and Omodos.įor the Greek name of the village the predominant interpretations are the following three: Coming from the Cypriot word "modos", which means, "taking your time", with tact, carefully. The mediaeval annalist Leondios Machairas reports that Omodos had been granted to the nobleman Jean de Brie by the king of Cyprus, Jacob I, on the occasion of his election in 1832. In any case, the village did exist during the Frank Domination era. This means that Koupetra existed in 1191 and dissolved later.Īfter the break-up of the Koupetra settlements a new settlement was created around the original Holy Cross Monastery, taking the name Omodos. According to tradition, Isaac Comnenos -who was the despot of Cyprus (1185-1191) -found refuge in Koupetra after his defeat by the English King Richard Coeur-de-Lion in Kolossi until Richard summoned him to Limassol for talks and a truce. The village was quite probably created at the end of the Byzantine era or the beginnings of the Frank Domination era, after the Pano and Kato (Upper and Lower) Koupetra settlements, found in the east bank of the Cha-potami river, were dissolved. Regarding transportation, Omodos is connected with the village of Mandria (4 km.) in the north-east and the villages Vasa Koilaniou (3 km.) and Malia (5.5 Km.) in the south-west. A small part of the village -in its north part -is taken up by the state forest of Pafos. There also are uncultivated areas that are taken over by varied natural vegetation. The village receives an annual average rainfall of about 760 millimetres vines and various fruit-trees (apple, plum, pear, peach, and apricot trees) are cultivated in the region. The village is surrounded by tall mountaintops, the tallest of which are "Afames" (1153 m.) and "Kremmos of Laona" (Laona's Cliff, 1092 m.). It is built near the west bank of the Cha-potami river at an average altitude of 810 meters. Omodos is located about 42 kilometres north-west of the city of Limassol, in the geographical region of the wine-making villages.
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