Arsos ( gr, Άρσος) is a village located in the

Limassol District Limassol District () or Lemesos ( el, Λεμεσός) is one of the six districts of Cyprus. , it had a population of 239,842, 77% of which was urban. Its main city is Limassol. Part of the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia for ...

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 ...

History

Arsos has been a winemaking village for centuries. It was already renowned for its vineyards in the 16th century, with the 1572 Ottoman census records suggesting that the village already had a long winemaking tradition in the

Venetian Venetian often means from or related to: * Venice, a city in Italy * Veneto, a region of Italy * Republic of Venice (697–1797), a historical nation in that area Venetian and the like may also refer to: * Venetian language, a Romance language s ...

period. In the late 16th century, it was also the only centre of trade in the ''

nahiye A nāḥiyah ( ar, , plural ''nawāḥī'' ), also nahiya or nahia, is a regional or local type of administrative division that usually consists of a number of villages or sometimes smaller towns. In Tajikistan, it is a second-level division w ...

'' of Evdhimou, in which it was administratively placed during the

Ottoman rule Ottoman is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, ‘uthmān). It may refer to: Governments and dynasties * Ottoman Caliphate, an Islamic caliphate from 1517 to 1924 * Ottoman Empire, in existence fro ...

; the village held a once-weekly market. It was recorded as having an entirely Christian population of 250 households and 26 bachelors in the 1572 census. It was thus the largest village in the region, and the second richest (paying 22,394 ''

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

'' every year), as it paid less tax then Pano Evdhimou. With its relatively large size, Arsos was subdivided into four quarters: Agios Apostol, Agios Androniko, Agios Pereshkoga and Agios Philippos, as transcribed from the Ottoman records. Arsos' name itself was recorded as ''Archu''. Under the Ottoman administration, the village derived its income from grain cultivation, and with winemaking banned, the vineyards produced and sold grape juice; indeed, Arsos was the largest producer of grape juice in the region.

References

Communities in Limassol District {{Cyprus-geo-stub