My dear fellow villagers, expatriates and friends of Gerakies, I welcome you to the Virtual Tour of Gerakies and I promise you a complete update about the village that we all loved and still love.

In a few words below I will try to record the historical retrospective of this beautiful village of Marathasa.

The village of shoushouko, of cherries, the village of miners. Built at the foot of Troodos at an altitude of 1000 meters, it is part of the group of 5 villages of Marathasa crossed by the river Setrachos and its tributaries. West of it, the Monastery of Panagia Kykkos certifies the Orthodox faith of the inhabitants. To the north it overlooks the bay of Morphou and the sea of Xeros.

Its inhabitants, men and women, hard working people, proud and unbowed in the face of the ravages of time, remain vigilant in the present, optimistically look forward to the future and nostalgious for the past.

The houses at the village are patiently waiting for the people of Gerakies to come back and the alleys and streets to be filled again with voices and laughter from the children who were threshing in the neighborhoods. In the 70s the inhabitants numbered around 1000 because the village was prosperous and the people, women and men, contributed enough money to the family income that the family could live a comfortable life and not envy anything from the life of the city.

But when the Turkish invasion of 1974 started, the mines were closed and the men of the village were unemployed. The incomes and produces of the land of the Gerakies were not enough to feed the family, so with heavy hearts, most of them started to leave for the cities or abroad for a better future for their children.

The effort of me personally and of the members of the Community Council is nothing less than to open the way for the return of the people of Gerakies. Our actions are all aimed at Gerakies becoming again the village of shoushouko, of 10 plus cafes and 1000 inhabitants.

I thank all people of Gerakies, expatriates and friends who support our efforts.

Best regards,
President of Gerakia Community Council, Marios Charalambous and members.