Amargeti, a village of unique beauty with magnificent archaeological findings, is located east of the town of Paphos and belongs to the geographical region of Ampelochoria.
Geographical and historical framework
The village is built on an altitude of 390 metres and the annual rainfall is about 600 mm. The scenery is divided by the river network consisted by the river Ezousa on the west and the river Xeropotamos on the east. As the Great Cyprus Encyclopaedia characteristically remarks, “the angle towards the two valleys is appreciable”. The relatively wide alves of Xeropotamos with the meanders and its small alluvial valley is really astonishing”.
Vineyards, almond-trees, olive-trees, cereals as well as several fruit-baring trees such as apple-trees, pear-trees and peach-trees, thrive in our village.
Both, during the period of the Frankish and Venetian occupation, Amargeti belonged to a feudal lord. In particular, Mas Latrie, includes Amargeti in the list of villages that used to be fiefs during the aforementioned periods.
“Sculptures and inscriptions on bases of statues of the Hellenistic and Roman era” that were discovered in the area of Amargeti are of particular interest, both from a historical as well as from an archaeological point of view.
Sacellariou remarks that “similar ancient pots were discovered in the ancient Mycenae, in Greece”. He also remarks that ten of the inscriptions “contain the name of ‘Opaonos Apollona’ and one the name of ‘Melanthios Apollonas’. He carries on by making clear that “in this case, Melanthios should not be considered as the second name of Apollonas”.
As far as education is concerned, the first school, according to Loizos Philippou, began operating in 1865 and the first teacher taught from 1865 until 1868. This first school was housed in a room rented by the students’ parents. What is more, the parents were responsible for paying the teacher. Philippou writes that the teacher was “given a salary by the parents of the students and received the customary gifts every Saturday”.
Road network
Until the early 90’s, the village was accessed only through the road heading from Timi to Panagia and which is very tiring since it had a lot of curves. After continuous efforts by the residents of the village, a new road from Agia Varvara has been constructed.
Naming
The naming of the village, in accordance with the Great Cyprus Encyclopaedia, is possibly connected to the female Frankish name Amargueti, which was really common in the court of the Lousinianians.
It must be mentioned, that in old maps, the village is marked under the name “Margieti”.
Population
Amargeti, according to the inventory of 2001, numbers 171 residents. Our village, until 1958 was mixed. In particular, during the inventory of 1946, 86 out of 328 residents were Turkish Cypriots. In 1958, the Turkish Cypriots abandoned the village permanently. As it is observed in the following chart, the gradual decrease of the population began in 1960 and continues up until today.
Year | Population | Year | Population |
1881 | 328 | 1960 | 551 |
1901 | 444 | 1976 | 478 |
1921 | 495 | 1982 | 380 |
1946 | 653 | 2001 | 171 |
The village today
The settlement in the core of the village is relatively compact and becomes sparser in the periphery. In the centre of the village there are old houses, traditional water taps made of local stone, as well as narrow alleys. The central square with the paved court, the building of the Community Council which is also built with local stone, the Heroes’ Monument and the tall eucalyptus really stand out in the village.
Churches
There are two churches in our village. There is a main church dedicated to Zoodochos Pigi (Life-giving spring) and a chapel dedicated to Saint George. Churches
Occupations
The residents of the village deal with agriculture and stock-breeding, but mostly with the cultivation of vineyards. However, some of the residents of the village work in Paphos, since it is only a 25 minute drive from our village.
What is more, in our village, people deal with the production of wine and ‘Zivania’ which is the traditional alcoholic drink of Cyprus. Amargeti, as it is confirmed by the Great Cyprus Encyclopaedia, “disposes several boilers for the production of Zivania”.
Source:
Great Cyprus Encyclopaedia, Filokipros Publications, vol.2
Community Council of Amargeti