Today, I joined in on a field trip with Rachel’s 4th year architecture students from the University of Nicosia to the village of Φικαρδου (Fikardou), which is located in the foothills of the Troodos Mountain Range.
The village is named after a medieval ruling class family who oversaw the surrounding lands, but the landscape today is a settlement of typical 19th century masonry mountain homes that are broken up by a series of intimate pathways between them. Much of the village has been preserved by the Department of Antiquities, which owns a few of the structures as “A” list of monuments. Those buildings have been restored to be used as a museum of rural culture, which shows how the residents of the village would once have conducted daily life and work. There is also a heavily restored 18th century church that sits on the foundation of an earlier structure.
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| Roof tiles, masonry, and mud brick make up the urban fabric here |
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| The settlement is nestled within a mountain pass |
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| Another village church where a local old man holds the key |
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| Church of Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul |
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| Intimate streets |
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| The view from the mountain village to the North overlooks Nicosia and the Mesaoria Plain. A perfect vantage point for a noblemen in charge of the rural village. |
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