I realize that the last few posts about Cyprus have mainly contained churches (UNESCO Painted Churches, Neophytos Monastery, Church outside Kritou Terra).. As you have surely noticed I’m obsessed with Greek Orthodox churches and architecture. I promise that this is the last post about Cyprus that contains a church. I have to warn you though, this one is probably the prettiest I’ve seen.

My friend and I had to cancel our plans to go to the Blue Lagoon in Akamas Peninsula due to a broken down rental 4×4 (you can read the full story here). Instead, we decided to make our way to the Pomos region to explore the area there.

Pomos

According to Wikipedia Pomos is one of the most remote villages of Cyprus, to me everything in Cyprus is really close together; so I didn’t sense this remoteness. I mean Pomos is an hour away from Paphos…

The Idol of Pomos was found in this village, which is a prehistoric sculpture from the 30th century BC. It’s assumed to be a fertility figurine in the shape of a woman with her arms open; when Cyprus received the Euro the Idol was depicted on the 1 and 2 Euro coins.

Pomos has a nice restaurant called the Kanalli Fish Restaurant which overlooks the harbour and from there you can also see Occupied Cyprus. If you look closely you can see the Turkish flag in the hills.

Saint Raphael Church

The Saint Raphael Church in Pachyammos is probably the most beautiful Greek Orthodox Church I have seen in Cyprus. It’s an easy drive along the coast from Pomos.

Not only the exterior of the church is beautiful, the interior also contains a lot of colourful (and graphic) paintings.

The church is famous for its miracles. The name Raphael means “God has healed” and hundreds of pilgrims come from all over Cyprus to pray to the saint in the hope of indeed getting healed.

On the church grounds there’s also a statue of a soldier. It could be because of the beautiful blue sky, but everything surrounding this church looks absolutely gorgeous.

Chrysopateritissa Church

We didn’t know where else to go from Pomos so we resorted to driving away from the coast for a bit. We passed mountainous areas, a dam and trees with pine cones! Something I would never have associated with hot Cyprus if I wouldn’t have seen it with my own eyes.

Chrysopateritissa Church is a few minutes inland from Pomos. If you’re going there and you’re hoping to pass through the area to continue onward into the mountains, you might want to consider driving a 4×4. Past the church the roads get bad, so we decided to drive all the way back to Pomos instead.

Chrysoroyiatissa Monastery

Chrysoroyiatissa Monastery is not actually near Pomos, but because all these sights are in somewhat close proximity and we visited them all in one afternoon I felt it was worth putting everything together in one post.

The monastery is dedicated to Our Lady of the Golden Pomegranate. It was founded in the 12th century, but the actual building you can see today is from the 18th century. Apparently there’s a winery in the monastery, but it wasn’t open on the day we visited.

Cyprus’ famous sights do not get many visitors, but this Monastery seems to be very popular.

Kolios Winery

We arrived a little bit late for the wine tasting & tour in Kolios Winery, because it was already done by the time we arrived. However, the lady was nice enough to let us taste some wines and to enjoy the view.

It’s probably because the wine tasting was already over, but this tasting won’t go down in my books as the best tasting I have been to. We were offered only one or two wines, so with this limited choice I jumped on the opportunity to try local grapes.

Even though the style of the Kolios winery itself is quite serious the washroom signs are the funniest I have seen.

I would have killed to do a Commandaria wine tasting in Cyprus, but unfortunately that delicious sweet dessert wine wasn’t available in Kolios nor in the region. This will have to be on the itinerary if I visit Cyprus again.

Conclusion

I think it has become clear from all my posts about Cyprus that it’s a gorgeous country and it’s worth just renting a car and exploring the countryside. The cities are nice but the best places, as is often the case, are outside the cities. I have one more post about Cyprus remaining which is about a quick visit to Choirokoitia, a UNESCO Heritage Listed Site.

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