Lemesos's 16 km long coastal strip developed in recent years as a popular tourist resort, gives the visitor the impression of a 21st century city.

Archaeological evidence shows settlement at what is now Lemesos for the past 5.000 years although it was always overshadowed by the ancient City Kingdoms Kourion on the west and Amathus on the east.  As they were abandoned in the Byzantine period (7th - 10th cent. A.D.) Lemesos developed into a larger settlement with the name Neapolis (New Town).

The city was also know as Nemesos, a name that indicates the geographical location of this city "in between" Kourion and Amathus.  In Medieval times the name changed to Lemesos.

One of the most important events in medieval Lemesos was the arrival of King Richard the Lionheart, one of the leaders of the Third Crusade, on his way to Jerusalem.  Tradition says that King Richard married Berrengaria of Navarra in Lemesos at St. George's Church, situated in the area where the Medieval Castle of Lemesos was later built.

During this early Medieval period Lemesos became an important port.  With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, the Ottoman Turks occupied Lemesos when they took over the island in 1571 and kept it for over 300 years.  During the British period (1878 - 1960), Lemesos developed into the second largest city of Cyprus.  The tragic events of the Turkish invasion of 1974, which resulted in the oprooting of 200.000 people from the northern part of Cyprus meant a large number of refugees suddenly finding hospitality in Lemesos.  This resulted in the rapid expansion of the city.  A town of 65.000 inhabitants grew into a city of 136.000, an important business and tourist resort and a center for international offshore companies.  Its new port is now one of the busiest commercial and cruise ports in the eastern Mediterranean.

 

top