General

Inside a small valley and upon its surrounding slopes that are encircled by small and large mountains, plateaus, steep hillsides and cliffs, all overgrown with vines, at an average altitude of 750 meters and at a distance of about 35 kilometres from the city of Limassol, lies built the picturesque vine-growing village Vasa Kilaniou.

Vasa is one of the most important vine-growing villages of the region and even in previous historical periods it had a reputation for its vines. A reference is made by Masse Latri about the export of large quantities of raisins made in Vasa. Today Vasa also holds a privileged position nation-wide in the production of raisins. Particularly, however, A. Gaudri mentions -among other things -that “… Omodos, Vasa, and Arsos provide the finest dark wines of the island.”

Vasa, based on arable land with vines, is the fifth vine-growing village of Limassol; it is also among the top villages that their arable land with vines surpasses 40% of their total range.

The village, as well as all the vine-growing villages of the region, has gone through large fluctuations of population. In 1881 its inhabitants were 397, increasing to 512 in 1891, to 690 in 1911, to 785 in 1921, and to 871 in 1946. The urban pull phenomenon also hit Vasa just like all the winemaking villages and as a result its inhabitants decreased to 741 in 1960, to 551 in 1973, and to 367 in 1982. In the last census of 2001 the inhabitants numbered….. It is worth mentioning that in 1946, out of a total of 127 villages, Vasa was the sixteenth village of Limassol in population.

Vasa connects on the north-east with Omodos and Platres, with Malia and Arsos in the south-west, with Potamiou in the south-east, and with Kissousa and Pachna in the south.

The village took its name, which is of purely ancient Greek origins, from the word “Vassa” or “Vessa” that means “wooded valley”.

In Arcadia of Pelloponesos there was a settlement with the name Vassae during ancient times, where the famous Temple of Apollo the Epicurean. The name the village thus may -very probably -relate to the colonisation of Cyprus by the Arcadians. Indeed, a temple of Apollo existed in the village, upon which the main church is built, a fact that reinforces this opinion.

Vasa had been an important feud during mediaeval times. It was the property of the -crusaders and Barons -Imbelins of Giaffa. Indeed, Gunnis refers to remains of foundations from a castle on a hill, at the centre of the village, evidently on the hill behind the church where. in 1993. Collections of Venetian swords were discovered.

The village is of the compact, centralised type. Apart from the social factor, the terrain of the region also helped in having this type of settlement. In Vasa the seductive traditional architecture, with paved streets, with elongated, arched or elevated rooms, built with splendid hewed limestone, is still preserved even today. In several houses there still are the old wine-presses as well as the modern presses for the production of the famous wine of Vasa and also the distilleries for the production of “Zivania”.

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