Kornos, the village of the red clay potters

Kornos is one of those villages where an old craft is still alive. Red clay pottery is still made by hand here, as it always was, and for me that’s more than enough reason for a short detour on the way to Stavrovouni.

Where it is

In a straight line, Kornos is about 5 km from Stavrovouni Monastery, 3 from Pyrga and 28 from Nicosia. With 2,081 people in 2021 it’s a good-sized village, and it belongs to the group of Larnaca hill villages holding the EDEN label. The main photo shows Stavrovouni, the mountain that dominates the area, about 5 km away.

Red clay pottery

The Larnaca Tourism Board explains that Kornos pottery, made from the area’s red clay, is still produced entirely by hand and is on Cyprus’s national intangible cultural heritage list under UNESCO. The main tool is a low, slow wheel turned by foot.

The traditional pieces have their own names. Pitharia were used to make trachanas, the cracked wheat soup, and to store wine and water. Pitharouthkia were for cooking meat, kouzes, with long necks, for serving water, and large open vessels for cooking. In the old days they were fired for 10 to 12 hours in a domed kiln whose door was sealed with pieces of broken pottery.

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How it’s decorated

The decoration is simple, a few bands below the neck made with a comb. The board describes three techniques. Punctate work, pressing a piece of comb into the spinning pot or making small holes with a matchstick. Relief, with birds modelled by hand on the belly of the pot. And the little wheel, a carved wooden cylinder rolled around the pot, which is no longer used. Today the pottery is more decorative than practical, with fruit bowls, vases and small jugs, and it’s fired in gas or electric kilns.

The botanical gardens

The tourist board also mentions the Lumina botanical gardens in Kornos, with nature activities, oil distillation demonstrations, workshops with herbs and plants and seasonal events.

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Why I’d stop

What I like about Kornos is that the craft isn’t staged for visitors. The pots are still made the way the board describes, by hand and on a wheel driven by the potter’s foot, and buying one here means buying from the place where the tradition lives rather than from a souvenir shop on the coast.

Combining it

Kornos, Stavrovouni and the royal chapel at Pyrga fit into one morning. If women are in your group, remember they can’t go beyond the gate at Stavrovouni, while Agia Varvara, lower down, welcomes everyone. If village crafts interest you, Lefkara lace and the bread of Athienou follow the same thread.

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