Fikardou, a village turned into a monument

Some villages are pretty and some have been frozen in time. Fikardou is the second kind, almost literally, since it had 25 residents in 2021 and the whole place is a protected monument. Drawing on the Nicosia Tourism Board, here is its history and what to see. It also features in my most beautiful villages in Cyprus.

A name from Cornaro’s court

Fikardou sits at 900 metres in the Pitsilia area of Nicosia district, reached by the E903 and then the E904. The Tourism Board explains that Fikardou and the neighbouring villages of Gourri and Lazania keep the names of medieval families, and that the best-known Ficardo was Sir Thomas Ficardo, chancellor to King James II and Queen Caterina Cornaro.

Today it’s almost deserted. The Department of Antiquities declared it an ancient monument in 1978 and restored it to preserve its 18th-century houses, with their woodwork and folk architecture, and in 1987 it won a Europa Nostra award. Work began in the 1970s with a small wine press and moved on to houses and outbuildings, under one rule, keep the original form and change only what’s needed inside to make them liveable.

The two house museums

The Katsinioros house, named after its last owner, has two storeys of stone under a steep timber roof with flat tiles, and 16th-century details such as a carved stone window with two arches. On the ground floor are a wine press, tools and storage jars; one of them records that in 1892 a fire swept through Machairas Monastery and nothing was saved.

The Achilleas Dimitri house also has its family wooden wine press, with the big screw that drove it, and a hole in the ground-floor ceiling for pitching straw into the barn. Both belong to the state and form an ethnological museum, open every day, 8:30 to 16:00 from 16 September to 15 April and 9:30 to 17:00 from mid-April to mid-September.

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The church and around

The church of the Apostles Peter and Paul dates from the late 15th century, though its present form, according to an inscription, is from 1754, with a small steep timber roof. The old Lazania-Fikardou school, restored in 2011, opens on Sundays as an embroidery museum, and a linear trail of medium difficulty with views over the area starts from it.

How I’d visit

In the morning, with time to wander the lanes, have a coffee in the village and see both houses. Then Machairas Monastery, under a quarter of an hour away according to the board. Heading back down to the plain, you can stop at the ancient site of Tamassos or, further east, at Lythrodontas, among the olive groves. Fikardou joined UNESCO’s tentative list in 2002, the step before full listing, and the surrounding area is covered in Nicosia district.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Nicosia on GetYourGuide.

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If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Nicosia for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.