Frenaros, the village of friars and watermelons

Frenaros is an old-style country village, with churches that have stood for eight hundred years and a festival built around the watermelon. It’s worth a stop if you’re touring inland. Below are the sights and the local food. Its red soil neighbours are covered in Kokkinochoria.

A name from the friars

Frenaros had 4,515 residents in the 2021 census. Visit Famagusta records that the name comes from the Frères Mineurs, friars of the Lusignan era who lived at the monastery of the Panagia of Chortakion in Sotira. The Cypriot author Nearchos Klerides explains this in his book on the villages and towns of Cyprus, adding that in 1468, when they could no longer support themselves, King James gave them help.

The Byzantine churches

Archangel Michael, in the centre, is a 12th-century single-nave church with a dome, dated by a fresco of the archangel Gabriel on the north arch. In Frankish times a narthex was added, and an inscription on the north wall confirms it then served Catholic worship. A new entrance was opened in 1873, and the dome is still untiled, coated in lime plaster. Beside it, the new church of 1969 holds a 14th-century icon of the Virgin of Saydnaya, with three donors painted at the bottom.

About 3 km east, the chapel of Agios Andronikos, also 12th-century, measures just 5.51 by 3.65 m and is largely ruined, but keeps traces of frescoes and had an Ascension of Christ in the dome instead of the usual Pantocrator. About 5 km south-west, the Panagia Asprovouniotissa, from around the turn of the 16th century, has frescoes of the Crucifixion, the Dormition and Saint Paraskevi.

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Watermelons, potatoes and halloumi

According to the region, Frenaros is one of Cyprus’s top watermelon growers, and in July it holds a watermelon festival, with fresh fruit, ice cream, cocktails and traditional food. Its red soil also yields potatoes, sown in winter and dug up between April and early June.

The village has a halloumi of its own too, made mostly from sheep’s milk, yellowish and buttery. Many families still make it at home, heating the milk in a copper pot and boiling the blocks in their own whey, and the leftovers become anari, a soft cheese. The region recommends trying it with watermelon. It also mentions the Hatzigiorkis flour mill museum, where it’s best to call ahead.

Memorials

In the centre, the statue of Fotis Pittas, unveiled on 26 February 1961, honours this teacher born in Frenaros in 1935 who fought in EOKA against British colonial rule and died in 1958 in a barn at Liopetri, and a small museum keeps his letters and belongings. Beside the community hall, another memorial remembers the villagers killed and missing in 1974.

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Getting there

OSEA routes 501 and 502 run through Frenaros between Deryneia and Liopetri, routes 702 and 706 link it with Avgorou and Paralimni, route 708 comes in from Vrysoules and route 709 continues to Sotira and Ayia Napa. A daytime trip costs €2. Nearby are Deryneia and Avgorou.

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