The village Steni is found five kilometers from the sea of the Gulf of Chrysohous. It is built at an altitude of 200 meters above the sea and its climate is ideal during all the seasons of the year. The fact that at a radius of ten kilometers from the coast of the Gulf of Chrysohous there are produced cherries, "avocado", "mango", watermelons, apples, bananas, oranges and almost anything you can imagine, it shows really what climate exists in this region, that is not met in other regions, not only in Cyprus, but also worldwide.

At the east side of the village, going up to the mountain at a distance of two kilometers, the visitor can see the forest of Paphos and in the northwestern side the entire gulf of Chrysohous with the neighbouring villages. This is really a very beautiful picture that is not easily found elsewhere.

We can not say for sure how the village Steni took its name, but there exists two versions by the older residents of the village. The first version says that the locality that the first settlement initially existed, it was a narrow part (steno) in the banks of the river that cross the community and possibly that’s why it was given this name. The second version says that the first resident of the village built his stockyard at a place called "stenia" from "stani" and thus afterwards "stenia" became Steni.

There is no exact information about when the village began to exist, but from a part of the old watermill next to the river that crosses the community, experts have pronounced that this is building of the 16th century and thus the village is of the same roughly chronology. Some other information brings the village to exist during the construction of the monastery of Virgin Mary of Chrysolakournas during the 12th century.
As all the villages of the region, the residents of Steni were dealing from the old years, with the agriculture and the livestock-farming. Because the village is found between mountains and plains, these two professions of its residents had been very gainful and also the water from the river that crosses the community had been for the old years the best gift to the residents.

The population had an augmentative tendency up to 1930, about 300 residents, but two big currents of immigration in South Africa from 1930-1950 and 1960-1975, brought the village to a stage between deterioration and indestructibility. A smaller current began towards South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century thus this country was the choice of all the immigrants of Steni.

The municipal school of Steni functioned in 1925 with 35 students from whom 27 were boys and 8 girls, having for first schoolteacher the unforgettable Loucas Argyrides from the village Katydata of Solea. It stopped functioning in 1983, because of the decreased number of children. The children of the community study today in the regional schools of Polis Chrysohous.

With the manufacture of the Evretou dam , the life of residents, especially that of the farmers changed because they had now other choices than the traditional agriculture, that is, cultivating only cereals. The main products today are the citrus fruits, olives and cereals. Apart from those that deal with the agriculture, others work in the tourist industry and others have technical professions. At the beginnings of 1980 the population began once again to increase, mainly because of the young persons in the village and the repatriation of the immigrants from South Africa due to the good economic situation that prevails in this region. Today the village of Steni has about 120 residents, but as it has been reported, with the augmentative tendency that exists, as well as with the installation of foreign people in the village, is forecasted that the population will be doubled over the next five years.

 

 

Stenis River,

The relation between a river and a community.

 

Undoubtedly, water is the element without which there cannot be life. The early man searched for water everywhere and it is near riverbanks that the greatest ancient civilizations commenced and evolved.

That is also the case with Steni, the first inhabitant(s) settled at the banks of the river, which today crosses through the village and is known as "River of Steni" in the official topographic maps of the state. The visitor today can ascertain -through the morphology of the terrain -that water ran its course through this place for thousands of years, thus the imposing canyons that were created in this region.

The waters of this river were the thing that became the cause for the settlement to begin and -later on -to evolve into a community. The report that the first inhabitant of this place was a shepherd reveals that he inhabited here due to the abundance of water for his livestock.

The first piece of evidence that the water was used for the need of the inhabitants, not only of the village but perhaps also of other neighboring villages, is the water mill - flourmill, which was most probably constructed at the center of the village around the 16th century.

The water came via a stone-made raceway along the river and through the force of its fall from above it set the millstones in motion, grinding the wheat.

The second water mill was constructed around 1880, two hundred meters east of the first one and on the opposite riverbank.

Just like in older times -but also in the previous era, when every house has its own supply of water -the women came to the area next to the first water mill and washed the family's clothes, there were the water fell from above, forming small ponds amidst the rocks. This is where the village's "plystario" (washhouse -washing place) was every day, the women washing the clothes barefoot and bashed them with the "Faoutes" (wooden, flat beaters) to clean them. This was the most frequented and most cheerful area of the village.

In the summer, after first building a "dimma" (an embankment) higher above the location of their houses, the inhabitants -or at least those with estates could be irrigated because of the altitude -would irrigate their gardens with that water, having various trees such as pomegranates, citrus-trees, and seasonal fruits. There were even cases when in the case of a drought they would also irrigate some crops, provided of course that they were near the village.

The river's water was the reason why there were five oil-mills in the village, since large quantities of hot water were needed in order to extract the oil from the olives. All of the aforementioned oil-mills were situated next to the river.

The bridge over the river, joining the two parts of the village, was the meeting point for men during the evenings, sitting on the "pperivazia" (ledges, the bridge's protective sides) and listening to the river flow while chatting.

The area around the bridge and all the spots around it, the washing place, the flourmill, the oil-mills, and the watering places for the animals, were all full of people throughout every month of the year.

The River has offered also to the children, which would not come out of the water in the summer whenever they were free of helping in the agricultural tasks or whenever they finished their daily classes. They had traced some natural ponds that the water created amidst the rocks and were competing about which one would go in first when the water was crystal clear.

The elders nostalgically remember those days when the river was the village's point of reference, because all of its daily life revolved and depended upon the water that flowed throughout the year. The river brought each person closer to the other, since everyone had to meet somewhere near its banks, in the middle of the village, many times in a day. Especially for the women, it was the only place where they could go without asking their husbands and could learn the village's latest "news".

Although the river had only good things to offer to the inhabitants, it sometimes reminded them its presence more stressfully, especially during the months of winter and after intense rainfall. It came down violently with a thundering roar and when they heard it they all ran to see "the river coming down". As it passed through it swept everything in its path; the inhabitants of previous times made mentions of cases when the waters swept away oxen and sheep. When the river came down rapidly, the waters covered the village's bridge and split the village in two, leaving the two parts without any contact between them for days.

However, the villagers never held a grudge for the river, knowing that it would "die down" soon and again offer them all those things it always did -only good things.

Steni owes its creation and its existence to the water, which provided it with life for centuries and to the river that guided the water to the sea throughout the season.

The river, without ever asking them for something in return, provided for the locals -but they also showed their gratitude and their respect; so, when the official land registration was taking place in 1925, the inhabitants of Steni made it their own by naming it "River of Steni", since -indeed -it only crossed through Steni and it was only to Steni that it offered its blessings.

 

 

Histories from the past,

A tragic tale: probably the first murder in Steni (1878).

 

Ananias Papagianni was the oldest child out of five in the family of Steni's priest, Papagiannis Hadji-Argyrou, He was married to Mariou with which he had John, a 4 year old, Dimitris, aged two, and a son who was only a few days old.

He was a strong and handsome young man, twenty-eight years old, though shrewd and proud. He came from a wealthy family and perhaps that was what shaped his character, in the manner we mentioned above. Many times his deeds, although not evil, caused a confrontation between him and his father who was a quiet and pious man.

A Turkish-Cypriot nicknamed "Kolas" lived in the neighbouring village of Agios Isidoros, which is almost conjunct to the village of Steni. Perhaps the two young men were friends, since -in that era -the village's inhabitants lived together in harmony; the Turks of Agios Isidoros spoke only the Greek language, something indicating that they were Christians that converted to Islam. The Turk mentioned above regularly visited the house of two sisters in Steni, the two women being prostitutes. This is not strange for that era since -many times -poverty compelled some women to resort to that lifestyle to survive, the condition of the economy in the countryside during the times of Turkish domination being most tragic as we know.

Perhaps several people in the village nagged about Kolas's insolence, proceeding with such actions in their village, though no-one took any initiative to stop him. Knowing the character of Ananias, he must have considered it an insult for the Christian inhabitants of the village. So, he decided -we do not know if it was his decision or if some other persons influenced him -to give an end to this situation.

One night when Kolas visited the house, Ananias was waiting for him in the street, several meters away from it. As Kolas was heading back, the two young men came to blows; no one knows what exactly happened and how long the fight went on. At some point Ananias was found with a serious knife-wound in the chest. The perpetrator fled the scene but the cries of the wounded Ananias awoke the village and everyone that could run chased the perpetrator, soon arresting him before he was able to leave the village.

They took him to the house of Hadji-Lampis Hadji-Savvas, the head of the village, and after tying him up with a rope they fastened him to the millstone of the oil-mill that was located nearby, sending someone on horseback to notify the police in Polis Chrysochous. As it was expected, until the police arrived the perpetrator was savagely beaten by a few friends and relatives of the victim.

In the meantime others had transferred the victim to the village's main street but he was already dead, the wound being very severe. Meanwhile the policeman had come to the village, riding a horse and trying to approach the victim who was surrounded by all the villagers. Quite a few were shouting that the perpetrator should be put on trial and be hanged by the neck, Cyprus already being considered as British soil for some months now. A tragic figure in this scene was the wife of the victim, Mariou, mourning over her husband's dead body while having recently given birth.

After the policeman confirmed Ananias's death, he took the perpetrator and ordered him to walk in front of his horse, his hands tied, leading him to the police station of Polis Chrysochous.
The perpetrator was put to trial very soon and was convicted to twenty years of imprisonment, his action not being considered as premeditated murder. He was transferred to the jails in the island of Malta to serve his sentence, seeing only the sea and the sky from his jail cell, as he was later related after his release.

Mariou in the meantime had raised her three boys going through a thousand trials and tribulations, knowing the difficulties that a woman -alone, with three children and without a husband -was facing in that era. She raised her three sons, constantly advising them to be quiet, kind-hearted, and to avoid bad company, achieving her goals to the fullest.

Kolas, returned to his home after his release but he now as a stigmatised murderer. He could not keep any job and no one wanted him anywhere near. He was rejected not only by the Greeks but also by the Turks of his village.

In order to survive he was forced to beggary in the region's villages, including Steni. As the proverb declares "time can mend things" and so many of Steni's inhabitants started looking at Kolas as their fellow human being, though they did not forget that he was the murderer of a fellow villager of theirs, giving him whatever they could so that he could survive.

One day Kolas found himself before the house of Anania Ananias, the infant that Ananias Papagianni left behind him after his death so many years ago, who was married to Kyriakou Theodoulou Nitti. Kyriakou was a woman who always gave to those in need and so she offered a piece of bred to the murderer of her father-in-law. Her husband justifiably told her that it would be better to give that bread to their dog rather than to Kolas, knowing that the bread was offered to his father's murderer. Kolas heard the words of Ananias and said, word-for-word, "Ananias, don't hold a grudge against me and hate me, your father pinned me down and would have killed me if I had not nailed him with the knife", a detail that of course no one can confirm as being true.

Ananias's heart softened -being a mild and peaceful man -and so a calmness was set in the hearts of these two men, both being victims of the circumstances since the lives of both of them had changed after the tragic event of 1878.

 

 

Church / Chapels.

 

The church of Steni is dedicated to Agios Tryfonas that according to tradition is the protector of the animals and crops and came from the Lampsako of Minor Asia. The temple has been built in 1913 at the place where the first church of village was found, a small building which was destroyed by fire because of some forgotten candles.

During the construction of the existing temple, all the residents offered voluntary work, some of them carrying stones with their animals from the region of the Monastery of Chrysolakournas and others by proving help to the craftsmen that built the church.

The belfry which is one of the more beautiful of the region is entirely built from hewer hard stone of the region,  it was built in 1940 by the famous craftsman of that season, Constantinos Zoppos and his son Demos from the village of Geroskipou.

Before the construction of the belfry, as a "belfry", a tree, "tremithas" outside the entry of the temple was used where a bell was tied up. Near this tree existed a big stone which the Metropolitan was using in order to ride his "Moula" (female horse), after the Divine operation at the church was finished.

The money for the construction of the belfry had been gathered by contributions of immigrant people form Steni in South Africa that had been sent to the village for this reason.

The temple has been reconditioned in 1961 and in 1988 and every year on the 1st of February, day of feast of Agios Tryfonas, local people and residents of other villages honor with their presence the memory of Agios Tryfonas. Today the priest of the temple is Mr Josif Christodoulou Vodommatis.

 

The Monastery of Virgin Mary Chrysolakournas.

The Monastery of Virgin Mary Chrysolakournas is found roughly 3 kilometers at the north side of the village Steni in a fantastic locality, having a view of the gulf of Polis Chrysohous and Cape Akama.

We do not know when the monastery was founded or when it was destroyed. From some information that we have from the historical Archimandrite Kyprianos, we conclude that the monastery was abandoned in the beginning of the 19th century. Today, the monasterial buildings, that were saved devastated for fifty years, are completely disappeared. Only a small part of the church was saved and this up to 1974.

In 1974-1975 the Department of Antiquities restored the church. The saved, up to 1974, departments of the church emanated from various periods and are the result of many interventions during the long life of the monastery. A mural of Saint Ioannis the Precursor that is rescued in the western wall of the temple and that can be dated in the 12th century, reduces the foundation of the monastery in the medium Byzantine period.

From the saved elements it appears that the initial church was reconditioned radically during the 14th century after some destruction. The 16th century the Church was either destroyed or suffered extensive damages and it was then built again and took its current form.

Apart from the mural of the Precursor in the western wall that is dated in the 12th century, there were discovered also some written crosses of 12th century in the western wall.

In the quadrant of the arch, there are saved pieces from the "Platytera" between the Archangels. At a lower level there are saved big departments from the communion of the Apostles (Communion) and departments showing ceremonies by priests, where the better saved is that of Agios Gregorios the Theologian. In the western arc of the northern wall a big part of the mural of Agios Georgios is saved. Most of the saved murals are dated in first half of the 16th century.