Marathovounos

Marathovounos is under the state of Ammochostos. The village lies 2km North of the new Highway of Nicosia - Ammochostos and has the following villages around it. (Agastina, Mousoulita, Yenagra, Vitsada and Tziados). According to the History of the village, there was an old village in the position of the Tziados village called Agia Paraskevi around the year 1571. Up to today we believe that after the Turks came they destroyed the church and built their Minare. During the unsuccessful uprise of the Greek Cypriots in 1821, the Turkish Army killed and destroyed most of the Greeks and their properties. On the 31 May 1821 the Turkish Army took all the young in the church, 450 the number, and killed them. In their state of fear, one very large family fled and came to the Vounos where a flower was growing called Marathos (Anniseed) which has a very aromatic smell. They decided to start a small site there, and around it they built the Marathovounos of today, as we know it. Very close under the iero of the today's church, is still in existence the big hole on the hill where the first family came and lived until the building started.!!!!! Marathovounos had its little suburbs also. We start from the Anefani, Yerolakkos, Loukkara, Kafenedes, Leishina, Rashi..... The population of Marathovounos of the 1974 estimated to be over 3500 inhabitants. Most of the families had relatives overseas. The inhabitants were shepherds or were working in the farms agriculture or farming of cows. Others were working in the big cities Nicosia and Fammagusta.

Marathovounos was a large purely Greek community of the occupied part of the District of Ammochostos. Geographical Location: It lies 32 klm West of the town of Ammochostos and 24 klm East of the town of Lefkosia, on the Mesaoria plane at a height of 65m. Population: The population of this community in 1960 numbered 2019 all Greek. Its population in 1973 was estimated at 2363.

Schools: The first Greek School in Marathovounos was established in 1869 and first teacher was Evgrafos Evstratiou (Εύγραφος Ευστρατίου) who had studied in Larnaca. The Greek Primary School that operated here before the Turkish Invasion of 1974 had during the 1973-74 school year 330 students.

Effects of Turkish Invasion: During the Turkish Invasion of 1974 the community was taken over by the Turkish army and as a result the whole of its Greek population was displaced. Since then, the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prohibit their return.