Ktima, the old town of Paphos up on the hill

Plenty of visitors leave Paphos without ever going up to Ktima, which is a shame. Up here is the town that lives all year round, with its market, squares and old-established shops, and the council has spent a good deal smartening it up. Here’s what’s worth seeing and how to fit it in with the lower town. The overview of the town is in Paphos.

The upper town

Ktima is the old town, on the hill, about 2.8 km from the harbour as the crow flies. The council calls it the traditional shopping centre, and in recent years it has rebuilt the streets and squares with EU money, starting with Kennedy Square. The streets are narrow, and walking is the best way to see them.

The municipal market

The market is where you see Paphos going about its day. According to the project description, the revamp gave the street on its west side a wide walkway, benches, planting and a platform for looking out to sea. The fruit and veg area was covered with metal canopies and timber louvres, with new stalls for the traders, and the rest became a tree-lined square. Upstairs, the old offices were turned into a restaurant with a west-facing terrace. The market’s opening times aren’t published in any official source I could find.

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The Khan of Ibrahim

This is my favourite corner of Ktima. The council says the inn went up around 1860 to house people travelling between districts on horseback, by cart or on foot, and that it was one of three khans in town. It had two floors round a courtyard, stables below and rooms above, plus a shop, a coffee house, a kitchen and a farrier’s workshop.

It ran until the mid-20th century, became workshops in the 1950s and was abandoned after the intercommunal clashes of 1963 and 1964, along with the whole surrounding area. Since 2019 it has been open again, restored, with exhibition rooms, shops, guest rooms and event space, plus a timber stage in the outer courtyard.

What else is there in Paphos old town?

A few steps from Kennedy Square is the Palia Ilektriki, the old power station, which keeps some of its machinery and now hosts talks, exhibitions and small concerts. North of the old Attikon cinema, itself turned into an arts venue, stands the 410-seat Markideio municipal theatre, opened in 2018 on the ruins of the old one and named after Sotirakis Markidis, born in Ktima in 1894.

Agios Theodoros, the metropolitan cathedral, was extended westwards in 1983 and painted inside in 1994. South of the old Turkish Cypriot quarter, in Mouttalos, the council has opened a path along the rock face and its caves, where, according to oral accounts, Turkish Cypriot women and children sheltered during the clashes of 1963 and 1964. The Paphos Archaeological Museum, the district’s own, is also up here, on Griva Digeni Avenue. The old Byzantine museum, though, has moved to Geroskipou, as I explain in Paphos Byzantine Museum.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Pafos and pick one that fits your day.

Getting there and staying

Pafos Buses route 610 links the harbour station with the municipal market, and the 618 runs from Karavela station in the upper town to Kennedy Square and the Tombs of the Kings. A single is €2. Most hotels on the official list are on the coast, so I’d stay down there and come up for dinner. Ktima sits on the hill with no beach of its own; the town’s beaches are in Paphos beaches. Options are in Paphos hotels, and how tickets work is in buses in Cyprus.

Where the bus does not go, a car does: compare car hire in Paphos before you arrive rather than at the desk.

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