Yeroskipou
Encyclopedia
Yeroskipou is a coastal town in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

, east of Paphos
Paphos
Paphos , sometimes referred to as Pafos, is a coastal city in the southwest of Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos and New Paphos. The currently inhabited city is New Paphos. It lies on the Mediterranean coast, about west of the...

. Its current population is approximately 7,000 and it is the second largest municipality
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...

 in the Paphos District
Paphos District
Paphos District is one of the six districts of Cyprus and it is situated in the western part of Cyprus. Its main town and capital is Paphos. The entire district is controlled by the internationally recognized government of Cyprus...

. Yeroskipou, with its remarkable five-domed Byzantine church of Agia Paraskevi
Agia Paraskevi
Agia Paraskevi , is a suburb of Athens, Greece, in the northeast of Athens, about nine kilometers away from the city centre. It is linked to Athens by Mesogeion Avenue, a major road in the greater Athens area. It is a municipality within Attica region....

, and its Folk Art Museum, is a popular tourist destination. It is known especially for the production of Cyprus Delight
Turkish Delight
Turkish delight or lokum is a family of confections based on a gel of starch and sugar. Premium varieties consist largely of chopped dates, pistachios and hazelnuts or walnuts bound by the gel; the cheapest are mostly gel, generally flavored with rosewater, mastic, or lemon...

 (loukoumia or lukum). The town is the only place in the world which has protected geographical indication (PGI) for the popular dessert.

History

According to local tradition, and as is implied in the etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...

 of the town's name, Yeroskipou was the site, in Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

, of goddess Aphrodite
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.Her Roman equivalent is the goddess .Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia....

's sacred gardens. Hence its name — "yeros" (ιερός, holy) and "kipou" (from κήπος, garden) — means "holy garden". Ancient pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...

 from Nea Paphos passed through Yeroskipou before reaching the temple of Aphrodite at Kouklia
Kouklia
Kouklia is a village in the Paphos District, about from the city of Paphos on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The village is built in the area of "Palaepaphos" , mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty...

.

The Classical writer Strabo
Strabo
Strabo, also written Strabon was a Greek historian, geographer and philosopher.-Life:Strabo was born to an affluent family from Amaseia in Pontus , a city which he said was situated the approximate equivalent of 75 km from the Black Sea...

 mentions Yeroskipou, calling the settlement Hierokepis. Many other travellers have written that in the coastal plain of Yeroskipou there were centuries old olives and carob trees.

In the 11th century, the five-domed Byzantine church of Agia Paraskevi was built in the middle of present day settlement. It is also mentioned that at Moulia, a coastal locality of the town, the miraculous icon of Panagia of Khrysorogiatissa was found by the monk Ignatios, who carried it to Rogia mountain from where the monastery took its name.
In 1811 Sir Sidney visited Yeroskipou and met Andreas Zimboulakis
Andreas Zimboulakis
Andreas Zimboulakis was British Consular Agent in Cyprus and was responsible for the provisioning of the British Mediterranean men-of-war.-References:...

, appointing him as a vice-consul of Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

. Zimboulaki, who was born in Kefalonia
Kefalonia
The island of Cephalonia, also known as Kefalonia, Cephallenia, Cephallonia, Kefallinia, or Kefallonia , is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece, with an area of . It is also a separate regional unit of the Ionian Islands region, and the only municipality of the regional unit...

, settled in Yeroskipou and his duties as vice-consul were to protect the interests of Britain. The house of Zimboulaki where many personalities were hosted, was bought in 1947 by the Department of Antiquities, to be converted into Folk Art Museum.

A British firm set up a factory for silk production in 1925. Hundreds of workers both from Yeroskipou and the surrounding villages were employed in it. However, the factory closed in 1952. It is also mentioned that at Yeroskipou there was also a linen-processing factory.

The current mayor of the municipality of the town is Tasos Kouzoupos.
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