Anafotia ( el, Aναφωτιά or Αναφωτία; tr, Akkor) is a village located in the

Larnaca District Larnaca District ( el, Επαρχία Λάρνακας, tr, Larnaka kazası) is one of the six districts of Cyprus. Its capital is Larnaca. It is bordered on the east by Famagusta District, on the north by Nicosia District and on the west by L ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, west of

Larnaca Larnaca ( el, Λάρνακα ; tr, Larnaka) is a city on the south east coast of Cyprus and the capital of the district of the same name. It is the third-largest city in the country, after Nicosia and Limassol, with a metro population of 144 ...

. In 1994, the official name of the village became Anafotida (), following a decision by the then-government of Cyprus to make the names of villages on the island more Greek. However, locally the village is still referred to as ''Anafotia''. The naming of the village, according to ''The Great Cyprus Encyclopaedia,'' derived either from the name “Agia Foteini” or “Fotou,” the latter meaning 'light' There is some evidence to suggest the name is derived from the Greek word for light, or fire, ''fotia,'' (φωτιά) as the Turkish name for the village, Akkor, translates into English as meaning 'incandescent'. Anafotia is mainly agricultural, with tomatoes being a dominant crop. The village centre is small, but there are a number of cafes, a branch of the

Co-operative Bank Cooperative banking is retail and commercial banking organized on a cooperative basis. Cooperative banking institutions take deposits and lend money in most parts of the world. Cooperative banking, as discussed here, includes retail banking carr ...

and four churches. The original church is dedicated to St Photeine. A new church was begun in the 1930s dedicated to St Dimitrianos. In his 1936 book ''Historic Cyprus'' the British colonial officer

Rupert Gunnis Rupert Forbes Gunnis (11 March 1899 – 31 July 1965) was an English collector and historian of British sculpture. He is best known for his ''Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851'', which "revolutionized the study of British sculpture, pr ...

thought the new church was so badly constructed it 'may well fall down', a prediction that came true twenty years later. In his book ''Strolling around Cyprus: Larnaka, City and District,'' Giorgos Karouzis wrote: 'While strolling along Anafotia, one mainly gets to see cultivated expanses of land. In particular, the village produces citrus fruit, watermelons, melons, tomatoes and cucumbers. A special place among the cultivations is held by the olive groves and the vineyards. In fact, according to the elderly residents of the village, as Karouzis preserves, the community used to be covered with even more vineyards which occupied large expanses of land. However, apart from cultivated pieces of land, there are also the uncultivated ones which take up 1000 square metres of land.' During the Greek Cypriot uprising against British rule from 1955 to 1959, which aimed to secure union of Cyprus with the

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label=Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where ...

through the process of

Enosis ''Enosis'' ( el, Ένωσις, , "union") is the movement of various Greek communities that live outside Greece for incorporation of the regions that they inhabit into the Greek state. The idea is related to the Megali Idea, an irredentist conc ...

, EOKA fighter Michalakis Parides, who was born in Anaphotia, died in a shoot out with British troops in 1958, in the village of Vavla, near

Pano Lefkara Pano Lefkara ( el, Πάνω Λεύκαρα) is a village on the island of Cyprus famous for its lace, known as lefkaritika in (Greek: λευκαρίτικα) and silver handicrafts. The village takes its name from the white of its silica and lime ...

. A statue of him stands in the centre of

, outside the Archaeological Museum. In the 2008 presidential election the village voted overwhelmingly for the right-wing DISY candidate

Ioannis Kasoulidis Ioannis Kasoulides ( el, Ιωάννης Κασουλίδης; born 10 August 1948 in Nicosia, Cyprus) is a Cypriot politician, party member of DISY and current Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus. He has served in the same position from 199 ...

(68 percent), against the Communist Party

AKEL The Progressive Party of Working People ( el, Ανορθωτικό Κόμμα Εργαζόμενου Λαού, ; abbr. , AKEL; tr, Emekçi Halkın İlerici Partisi) is a Marxist–LeninistHelena Smith, Cyprus gets ready for a communist 'takeover ...

candidate

Dimitris Christofias Dimitris (Δημήτρης) is the Modern Greek form of the older forms Demetrios, Dimitrios (Δημήτριος, usually Latinized as Demetrius) and may refer to: * Dimitris Arvanitis (born 1980), Greek professional football defender who plays for ...

(32 percent).Government of Cyprus Statistical Service

Notable people

* Ioannis Eoannou,

EOKA The Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA; ; el, Εθνική Οργάνωσις Κυπρίων Αγωνιστών, lit=National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) was a Greek Cypriot Greek Cypriots or Cypriot Greeks ( el, Ελληνο� ...

fighter *

Stass Paraskos Stass Paraskos ( el, Στας Παράσκος; 17 March 1933 – 4 March 2014) was an artist from Cyprus, although much of his life was spent teaching and working in England. Early life Paraskos was born in Anaphotia, a village near the city ...

, artist and founder of the

Cyprus College of Art The Cyprus College of Art (CyCA) is an artists' studio group, located in the village of Lempa, Cyprus, Lempa on the west coast of Cyprus. It was founded in 1969 by the artist Stass Paraskos; the current director is the Cyprus-based artist Margaret ...

* Michalakis Parides, EOKA fighter (killed in action 1958)

References

{{Larnaca District Communities in Larnaca District