Troodos

Kakopetria. Kakopetria is located on the Nicosia-Troodos road. Its centre has been restored and preserved as a historic site. It is definitely a rapidly growing resort, with an elaborate view over fruitful valleys, and has a great amount of hotels and restaurants. The village is situate on the northern corner of the mountains, but is at a close distance in order to be easily accessible from Kakopetria to anyone that wishes to visit and explore them.

Kaledonian Falls. These falls are definitely not as massive as other falls in the world. They are worth visiting though, especially since they are being fed by a perennial stream, the Kryos. The 2km Kaledonian Trail follows a lovely route amongst the forest up to the falls from a point close to Troodos village.

Kaliana. This is a small village that is located on the western corner of the Solea Valley. It is an excellent example of the true agriculture richness of the area, which is made evident by the hundreds of orchards, vegetable plots and vineyards in its surrounding areas. It has in its possession the church of Agioi Joachim and Anna that dates back to the 16-th century and has some extraordinary murals in its interior.

Kalopanagiotis. This village is located at the core of Marathasa Valley on the northern side of the Troodos Mountains. It contains the Kalopanagiotis Dam, which is several kilometres out of town. The former monastery of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis attracts a lot of people to the area. It is literally three churches in one and can also be found on the Unesco World Cultural Site. Each church stands close by to each other and are all covered by a common snow roof. They have painted frescos of Christ’s life and the Holy Family on the exteriors. The one church’s frescos that of the Agios Irakleidios has faded whereas the other two’s ones are still very vivid.

Kampos. This small village is quite difficult to reach due to the rusty roads in the area. It is of course a great place to go to if you feel like been isolated from the rest of the world for a while. It is one of the few villages in the area that has a hotel, tavernas and coffee shops. It also serves in a way a kind of dividing line between the rough and the smoother areas in the district. The areas that surround Kampos, have a few Byzantine churches, and functioning forest stations as well as picnic areas.

Koilani. This village is located in the heart of the grape-growing and wine-making district. It’s situated on the southern slopes of the mountains. It has in its possession the Koilani Ecclesiastical museum, which is found on the grounds of the Panagia Eleousa Church, and contains icons that span back six centuries, from the 13th to the 19th, ornaments and religious vessels and antique prayer books as well as other valuable objects.

Kyperounta. This tiny village lies on the eastern district of the mountains. It contains the small16th - century church of Stavros (The holy Cross), which has a few restored frescos and paintings that illustrate the discovery of the True Cross.

Louvaras. This village has in its possession the church of Agios Mamas that consists of paintings of the famous artist Phillipe Goul, during the period of the Lusignan kings.

Mandria. Mandria is well known as a village that serves as a crossroad for those that wish to desert the mountains and head down to the coast. On the left of the village is Limassol and on the right to Paphos. It is an extremely peaceful and quite village.

Marathassa Valley. Marathassa is a beautiful green and fertile valley that is scattered with agricultural villages on the northern slopes of the Troodos mountains. It is a village very well known for its production of great cherries.

Mesa Potamos Monastery. This monastery is situated half way between Pano Platres and Kato Amiantos. It oversees a sharp gorge where the Mesa Potamos plunges downhill in the winter. Bikes can be hired in Pano Platres for anyone to mountain-bike down this trail.

Mount Olympus. Unfortunately this beautiful peak of the mountains is another out of the many military controlled areas on the island that is filled with tyre-traps, security fences and guards. There is also a fire-watch observation tower and television masts painted in red and white colours. There is a captivating view from this altitude of 1,952m that anyone can enjoy amongst all that confusion. An interesting walk, the Artemis Trail which is about 7km long and was founded by the Forestry Department, begins a little further down from Olympus and basically describes and points out examples of flora, geology and geography along its path.

There are some loads of rubble that were found in the area and they are believed to be ruins of the settlement of Palaia Khoria. They were supposedly formed by the Venetians as a defensive wall during the 16th century to defend them from the Turks who had already captured Famagusta and Nicosia at the time. Unfortunately, the wall was not strong enough to defend them in this area either and therefore in a very short time, the entire island was in the hands of the Turks.

In the area, when it snows a lot during some winter months, great slopes are formed here, with a few ski-lifts for people to enjoy the slopes as much as possible.

Moutoullas. Moutoullas is an attractive small village that is located in the Marathasa Valley. It is well known for its miniature Byzantine chapel of Panagia tou Moutoullas that dates back to the 13th-century, that posses frescoes and charmingly carved doors. It is one of the privileged nine historic churches that are acclaimed by Unesco.

Omodos. This is the largest out of the Krassochoria villages, which has made immense efforts to preserve its traditional style. Some of the centre of the village has been converted into a street-stall and café centre. There are a few people that open up the traditional homes in order to give visitors a tour of them, usually charging a fee. There are many interesting items on sale in this village, such as local lace, which is called papilla, and the bread that is in the shape of a ring, called, arketana. This bread is a unique product of Omodos that is sold all over the island now. Huge pots, called plitharia are stored with wine and can be found in the traditional houses. In addition there is a Folk Museum in the village, which houses a 15th-century restored wine presser.

The Stavros Monastery that is also located in the village, was founded in AD327, and was also favoured by St. Helena, Emperor Constantine’s mother, who left sacred relics there that she had found on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The church also has a golden cross that consists of hempen fibres that area said to be from the ropes that bound Jesus from the cross, while the other is said to contain a piece of the True Cross.