Travel Guide Tochni

Along the Larnaka-Limassol freeway, this village makes a good base camp for exploring the region. There are good tavernas and superb apartments in renovated houses. The name Tochni is said to come from the Greek τέχνη/techni ("art"), no doubt due to the reputation of its stone carvers. Local stone is still used to renovate houses. The "Tochni stone" is extracted from a nearby quarry and gives a beautiful unity to this village, which spreads out on the slopes of two hills separated by a small river running under the Agii Konstantinos kai Eleni church. Above the church, you can enjoy a cup of coffee in an old arched building and take in the scenery. Incidentally, it's worth mentioning, because no-one on the spot will tell you, but the entire Turkish Cypriot population (70% of the inhabitants in 1974) was expelled. And the village remains associated with a terrible massacre: on August 14th 1974, 78 Turkish Cypriot men from Tochni and 6 others from Zygi were rounded up here, taken to Palodia, north of Limassol, and executed.