Kalavasos

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Description

The village Kalavasos is found at about 40 kilometres south-west of the city of Larnaca. It is built upon the west bank of the Vasilikos river, at an average altitude of 80 meters.

The village receives an average annual rainfall of around 445 millimetres; mainly citrus trees (orange, lemon, and grapefruit trees), other fruit-bearing trees (pear-trees), and vegetables (potatoes, tomatoes, and melon-like items) are cultivated in the region. In the rest of its areas cereals, forage plants, legumes, olive-trees and locust trees are cultivated.

Kalavasos is included in the Vasilikos - Pentaschoinos watering project and has benefited from the construction of the Kalavasos dam and the irrigation of significant tracts of land. The dam lies about 5 kilometres north-west of the village and has a capacity of 17,000,000 m³. Two plans for re-allotment of land have been implemented in the village.

As far as transportation is concerned, Kalavasos is connected by road to the Nicosia-Limassol highway that runs south of the community. In the north-west it connects to Asgata and in the north-east with Tochni.

The community has gone through great fluctuations of its population. In 1881 the village's inhabitants run into 667, decreasing to 661 in 1901, increasing to 738 in 1911 and to 953 in 1921. Afterwards the inhabitants of the Parsata and Drapeia villages, which were abandoned, were calculated along with the population of Kalavasos. Thus in 1931 the inhabitants run into 957, increasing to 1243 in 1946 (1051 Greek-Cypriots, 187 Turkish-Cypriots, 5 of other ethnicity). In 1960 the inhabitants decreased to 1126 (881 Greek-Cypriots, 243 Turkish-Cypriots, 2 of other ethnicity). After the events in Kofinou in 1967, the Turkish-Cypriots abandoned Kalavasos and settled in Mari. So in 1973 the community's inhabitants decreased to 752, all of them being Greek-Cypriots. In 1982 the community's inhabitants decreased to 655. In 2001 the community's population numbered 721 inhabitants.

The Kalavasos mines are located 6 kilometres north-west of the village, having contributed to the employment of a good part of the population for as long as they were operating.

The Kalavasos region, privileged in many respects, mainly because of the Vasilikos river that secured irrigation and watering and also because of its metal-bearing deposits, was densely populated since ancient times. Today the region is a very significant archaeological site. The "Tenta" settlement -as well as the other settlements discovered in the region -present a special interest.

The valley of the Vasilikos river and the entire surrounding area must have been wooded and verdant in previous eras, a fact that also provided -according to the prevailing interpretation -the name of the village. From the ancient Greek word "vassa", which means woody valley, came the name of the community.

The Kalavasos settlement was in existence during the Mediaeval era under the same name and is marked in old maps under the name Calavaso and Calavato.

The village's church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and next to it there is an ancient cemetery. There is also a Turkish Mosque in the village.

Kalavasos today is a developing community with all the comforts that modern times have to offer. The village daily receives several local and foreign visitors that admire the community's natural beauty and archaeological sites from up close.