In Paphos district, just a few kilometres from the village of Ayios Nikolaos stands the medieval bridge of Tzelefos. It is built over the river Diarizos, and it is the biggest bridge in Cyprus. It takes its name probably from the Greek word kelefos which means weak or sick and must be related to an incident during the building of the bridge. It joined or was the passage between the villages on the west bank, Milikouri, Vretsia and Ayios Ioannis with the villages on the east bank, Ayios Nikolaos, Kaminaria and Tris Elies.
In the old times, the river and the bridge were called Barbaros i.e., barbaric due to the sound made by the river which could be heard in the nearby villages. When the river came down full of water, the villagers would come running and hang baskets from the bridge into the water in order to catch eels.
Photograph by Veysi Soyer.
The ‘Did You Know’ series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus) and Active Citizens Fund.
