Asgata Village

Asgata is the most eastern village of the Limassol district. It is located at a distance of 26 kilometres from the town, built in the middle of a valley at an altitude of 190 metres. The largest part of the landscape is dominated by the lavas, chalks, marls and marley chalks. In umbers and calcareous soils, cereals, pulses, vegetables, carob trees, olive trees, almond trees, fruit trees, citrus, vines, (earlier) are grown and lately with the completion of the irrigation system the cultivation of vegetables has occurred in the areas of Pervolia, Gerambeos and Katsimata.

Simon Merardos , in his book Names of Cyprus it is mentioned that the Latin , medieval endings of –ata showed ownership . The plural ending – ata then became feminist therefore Asgata was previously called the ownership of Asga.

 Another version mentioned by Kostas Pyrron in the magazine ASGATA of the community of American Asgatians , that Asgata was inhabited from the beginning of the historical times and before the Attic dialect replaced the Doric dialect. With this he means that the name Asgata is nothing more than two Doric words As and Gata, the As meaning until and the Gata meaning farmer. We can therefore conclude that ancient Asgata was inhabited by famers who went to the markets to sell things to merchants.

Churches

The oldest church in the community of Asgata is the church of the twelve Apostles. According to the inscription which is on the north entrance of the temple it was built in 1834 from the Master Builder Dimitri and the Commissioner Christodouli. The church of the Twelve Apostles is known as the old church because as mentioned earlier on it is the oldest church in the community and as the church of the cemetery as the cemetery is in its square.

The church is built at the edge of the village at a hidden valley of the Asgata River. It is a small royal one room church with no bell tower or windows. It does not present a special interest concerning its rhythm or the interior decoration. The church was constructed by the pious takers in order to cover the immediate needs of the residents in the valley and to acquire a worshipping area. This is what the simple architecture and decoration of the church shows.

The testimonial of the older residents that the church was built in a hidden area in order to use the river valley as protection during Turkish raids is very important. They characteristically mention that in order to protect from the surprise inspections of the Turks, they would place a villager at a high point in the village. When the guard saw that the Turks were getting closer he would call out and the villagers would hide in the river valley.

It is also mentioned that underneath the church, at the river bank there was holly water. This holly water was used in order to bloom the mersines and the arodafnes. The believers had the habit of hanging their handkerchiefs and baby clothes for good luck.