Salamiou

The settlement of Salamiou has a history of 4,000 years. According to historical sources, the community probably took its name from Salamis, the ancient city of Paphos or Salamis in Greece. According to researchers, the suffix "-iou" is diminutive and its meaning is comparative, since it indicates its size, that it is small. So, the name of the village has etymological origin from Salamis, like a small Salamis. According to rumours, Salamis was founded in the middle of the 11th century BC, while there are written references to the ancient city of Salamis even 500 years before its foundation, which refer to the Salamis of today. Remarkable is the existence of a local kingdom in the area of where Salamiou is today which, in addition to written sources in ancient texts, can be confirmed by a stone column with a bearded archer and a Cypriot inscription found in the village and transferred to the British Museum in 1874. The village of Salamiou can be characterized as a classically traditional village, since the stone-built houses in combination with the local stone (the so-called Athasopetra) used in the construction of the settlement refer to another period, probably Byzantine. Salamiou is a living museum of folk architecture, since it gives visitors the opportunity to study the Cypriot architectural tradition historically, while many of its residences have been characterized as listed and traditional buildings.