Treis Elies, a small village on the Drakontas

Treis Elies is the opposite of Platres. Where Platres has hotels and bustle, here there’s a river, a handful of stone houses and plenty of silence. This is what the hamlet offers, according to the Troodos Development Company and Limassol Tourism’s list of churches.

A hamlet by the river

Treis Elies, meaning three olive trees, sits at 845 metres on the banks of the Drakontas river, in the western part of the Troodos Mountains. It counted 36 residents at the 2021 census and it belongs to Limassol district, though the development company counts it among the Marathasa valley villages, alongside those it spells Lemithou, Paliomio, Agio Dometio and Kaminaria. You reach it by heading down from Prodromos, the island’s highest village.

Around it grow apple, cherry and plum trees, vines and wild pine, oak, terebinth, plane and cedar. Its history goes back to the Middle Ages, and it keeps a rural feel, with stone houses and red roofs, some restored and some abandoned.

The churches

The main church is Panagia Chrysosotira, in the centre of the village. It was built in 1743 from local stone, in basilica form, and restored in 1907. According to Limassol Tourism it keeps a bone fragment of St Charalambos, who local tradition says lived and was martyred in the area, and an icon of the Virgin from 1770 painted by the hieromonk Charalambos.

There’s also a wooden-roofed church of Archangelos Michael from the 17th or 18th century, and the 17th-century chapel of Agia Paraskevi, between Treis Elies and Lemythou, a plain single-aisled church whose form, the board says, is typical of the small mountain churches built in Cyprus during the Ottoman period. The most special to me is Profitis Ilias, also 17th century, on a summit at about 1,106 metres three kilometres north of the village, with views that the board says reach the Paphos area.

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Bridges and a spring

South of the village are Venetian-era bridges, and north-east of the river there’s a sulphur spring. For walkers, the company describes the waymarked Venetian bridges trail, which leaves Kaminaria and reaches the Elia bridge after 3.2 km, about an hour, before carrying on through pine forest to the Tzielefos and Roudia bridges. If this kind of rural heritage appeals, neighbouring Foini also lists the Elia and Tzilefou bridges among its walks.

Staying in the village

What makes sense here is a night in a restored traditional house, which is exactly what the company suggests for a taste of rural life. If you’d rather a hotel, Platres is the biggest base in the mountains. I’d give Treis Elies a quiet afternoon, climb to Profitis Ilias for the view and pair it with Prodromos on the same day.

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

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

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