Dear friends, We salute you from the beautiful island of Cyprus. Our village is Frenaros and it is located at the south-east side of Cyprus. Frenaros is a small village of about 4000 people. ItÕs called Frenaros because of the many wells (in greek ÒfreatiaÓ) which the village had, many years ago. Others say that the village got its name from the French monks who lived in our village 800 years ago and they were called Çfrere mineursÈ (small brothers). The majority of the people in our village work in the tourist industry (hotels, restaurants etc), since Agia Napa (the islandÕs most attractive place for tourists) is near by. Many others cultivate potatoes and others breed animals. The most important monuments in Frenaros are: (1) The Town Hall
(2) The monument of the villageÕs heroes in the 1974 war against the turks
(3) The monument of the villageÕs heroe ÒPhotis PittasÓ, who fought against the British in CyprusÕ Liberation War in 1955-1959. He was killed in 1957 and he was a teacher.
(4) The villageÕs old and new church of Archangelos Michael.
Our country, Cyprus, is a small island located in the eastern side of the Mediterranean sea. ItÕs next to Turkey in the North, Siria in the East, Egypt and Israel in the South. Its population is about 800,000 people. Cyprus is from May 1st 2004, member of the European Union (EU).
The 80% of the population are Greek-Cypriots (greek orthodox Christians) including our village, the 12% are Turkish-cypriots (muslims) and the rest are other foreigners. The official languages are Greek and Turkish. Cyprus is a very beautiful island. It has beautiful beaches, tourist resorts, many museums which host the islandÕs ancient history. Some interesting places in Cyprus is petra tou Romiou (left picture), ancient Salamina (right picture), the monastery of Panagia in Kikkos etc. Our climate is very nice and sweet (is hot in the summer and not very cold in the winter).
The 40% of the island is occupied by Turkish troops, who invaded Cyprus in 1974. 200 000 Greek-Cypriots were forced to leave their homes in the North side of the island and come to live in the south side of the island. Many FrenarosÕ residents are refugees from the North. Today Greek-cypriots and Turkish-cypriots live separately, Greek-cypriots in the South and Turkish-cypriots in the North. We hope a solution will be found soon, so that our two communities live in peace.
CypriotsÕ favourite food is ÇsouvlaÈ. Souvla is any meat chopped in pieces and grilled on charcoal. It is cooked like this, since the ancient Greeks, 3000 years ago.
Greetings from the students of the 5th class of Frenaros Primary School Frenaros, Cyprus |
