A Walking Tour Of Vretsia – Paphos, Cyprus

A Walking Tour Of Vretsia – Paphos, Cyprus

hi this is Dominic from pathos life and on a hot slightly Dusty day I find myself on a picnic site just next to the Village of kinia on the banks of the zeros Valley near Pano panaya and statos AOS fos which is in that direction I’m going to go and visit the village of rtia which is down there on the borders of paos forest I thought I’d start here and have a little introduction you can get some of that erosion that’s going on down there always fascinates me you see from here there’s a graveyard down there while I’m here I just want you to want to highlight these funny little balls you see in pine trees avoid them at all costs because they’re uh the nest of precision re Pine caterpillars and uh the caterpillars are very poisonous especially to your pets so if if you see them and you got a pet with you go in the opposite direction whatever you do don’t whack them with a stick right so we’ve driven to The Far Side of the village now and I’m at the tavern but I’m just looking at the uh landscape there was a car coming to see us oh no that’s a truck that must have gone past the car now this place is uh V Tavern it was functional a few years ago but it burnt down and then they cleaned it out but nothing happened with it since we just walk through you have to excuse the light settings this isn’t really why I’m here oh remember when this place was uh been originally gutted like something out of a Fallout game yes you won’t be getting a drink here and in the past there have been donkeys in that field but it looks like someone someone’s growing vines there now if you go down there you’ll come to uh there’s a little bird watching uh platform and then you get to a a fire break and if you got a 4×4 and uh you like a bit of Adventure it’s a good drive but if you’re in a regular car don’t do it to get to Rude the bridge from here and the rest of power power for you have to go back up that way to uh pass the mosque have a look at the swing there’s an old uh fire there what at the boiler must have been Outdoors because there’s nothing on the other side of it so we’re going to drive back up through the village and stop off at various places along the way actually before we go back through the village I want to briefly show you this building is next to the tavern and in the past it was locked up say pass I’m talking about four or five years ago but recently there’s obviously been a fire in here as well probably deliberately I’d imagine and this place is now gutted now what’s noteworthy other than the poor quality of the film because of the lack of light is the seing you can see it’s got these little hooks on it and back in the ‘ 50s or before that before the place was El uh had electricity uh they used those to hang lights from at night you can see them in Finas and plac like that as well and one of the issues that a lot of the abandoned Villages had when the Turkish ciates were moved to the North and the Greek ciates were moved South was that uh because of The intercommunal Strife in the 50s and 60s they hadn’t been modernized uh like the other Villages had so we didn’t have electricity that wasn’t obviously the case of rure cuz you can see there where there were obviously light switches and power points so they would have come at a later date but originally place was built there wouldn’t have been electricity hence these hooks yeah I’m obviously annoying the local bird population so I’ll go right come up through the village a little bit and I wanted to stop here to show you this tiny little chapel there’s a competition for the smallest Chapel in pathos this could be a contender whe it count as a chapel or a shrine I’m not sure the place I’m most interested though is this building here cuz I went exploring there a few years ago cuz prior to that it had been locked up but and it was open so when we went interestingly they have recently been repairing the Minette if you look cuz that had collapsed we’ll get a close look at that in a minute point that out so I’ll make a all stamping noises because of the snakes and we’ll see what this is like now again you have to apologize for any lighting issues I haven’t really got the right camera someone’s lck that bed I seem to remember there used to be a lot of wool in here from refugees apparently I there some W so and there was a big old bed up here that had like a built-in music system it must have been top range in the 70s oh that’s not quite the same as it used to be I’ll stick up pictures from my original article so you can see what it used to look like but they obviously had power here sulfur fog sounds ominous right this is the kitchen Rems with my University days imagine having that as a view from your kitchen though he a bit less overgrown than that but it be spectacular so sad what happened there I know that they have pilgrimages from uh the Turkish C population in the north they come here once a year whether they still do or not they did a few years back see where they used to live must be tragic for them likewise Greek sh to relocated to the now one other thing I heard me that came up frequently was that uh I think it was in the 80s there was actually a broel operation here it believe it or not in one of the buildings and that no longer happens buffles have a a habit of popping up there was uh hotels that charged by the hour there was a Health Club North of liol which had some very interesting little rooms in there again Meed by the hour and remember if you like our content please do subscribe to our YouTube channel as it really does help YouTube promote us and if you want to help us financially then go to our paos life.com coffee page and you can either send us coffee or click on one of the affiliate links these buildings are all fairly empty now now this is the mosque and as I said a few years ago the minim had collapsed but it’s since been replaced if you can get in still now that road down there will eventually lead to uh rudia Bridge uh perasa and uh BAS it’s basically the C camel Trail so I get all of the Venetian Bridges Kos uh and the other one ellot I think but we’ll go in here yes it’s in decent state of repair so we’re going through to the other side bit wary of the staircase but it seems to be solid enough and that takes us up to the top so somebody has cared enough to repair and replace the minet which is nice to see cuz if they’re ever going to find the lasting piece they need to be getting on with each other God it’s beautiful here well I’ll have a Wonder for another couple of buildings and that’ll do I think now this here is the old mukar house and when I first visited here there was a full balcony going across the top there and it was in a lot better state of peairs but it’s pretty much collapsing there and this building here always used to be locked a quick look through here a lot of the buildings were actually used by hunters uh in the 80s and ’90s I’m led to believe have no idea what this says apologies if it’s rude bit of a weird weird graffiti there and see more of those hooks on the ceiling here as well as some particularly weird artwork a little secluded bit with a slightly dodgy roof no doubt I won’t bother going through there so that was reture a beautiful place tinger sad I’ll finish with a view of a building I particularly like it shows that the real winner is ultimately [Music] [Laughter] [Music] nature o [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] h [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Vretsia is an abandoned village at the top end of the Xeros River. If you are going on a jeep safari through Paphos Forest you will no doubt travel through here along your way to the Venetian Bridges. It is a beautiful place tinged with sadness.

Cyprus has more than it’s fair share of abandoned villages. The troubles caused the displacement of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.The environment itself has caused other villages to be abandoned for reasons of safety. this obviously caused emotional pain and suffering to the affected people. So is it right to make films and articles on them? I thought about this for a while, but decided that yes it was. Cyprus is a land built on antiquities, and these villages are just the latest example. I had no problem reporting on a Necropolis after all.

However, some of these villages, and especially Vretsia, do still get visits from the displaced families. So if you do decide to visit these places on the strength of these films and articles, please bear that in mind, and treat them with respect. Remember the urban exploring motto: “take only pictures, leave only footprints…”

For more information, see here:

■ https://www.paphoslife.com/blog/vretsia