Kalo Chorio Kapouti, also known as Kapouti, is a Greek community in the occupied district of Lefkosia. It lies 5 kilometres north-east of Morfou, 140 metres above sea level, in the southern foothills of the Pentadaktylos, in the geographical region of Morfou. Its land is crossed by two rivers, the Aloupos to the north and the Ovgos to the south of the village.¹ In the 1960 census it had 766 inhabitants, all of them Greeks.

Name

The origin of the name Kapouti is not known. In the 15th century the village is written “Caputi” and “Capouti”.² On Kitchener’s map of Cyprus, in the first years of British rule, the name is written “Kalo Khorio Kaputi”.³ The official gazetteer of Cyprus records the settlement as “Καπούτι”; on the land of neighbouring Kyra it also marks the place name “Kafkalla tou Kapoutiou”.⁴

Founding and first records

Kapouti first appears in a written source in the 1460s, as “Caputi”, in the list of the fiefs distributed by King James II. It is preserved by the 16th-century Cypriot chronicler Florio Bustron.⁵ A little later, in 1468, the village is mentioned as “Capouti” in an order of the same king, preserved in the register of the royal treasury. The 19th-century French historian Louis de Mas Latrie, who published it, places it on the last hills of the Lapithos range, at the entrance to the plain of Morfou, about one league from Morfou.⁶

Archaeological sites

In 1955 the British archaeologist Hector Catling, in the first year of the surface survey he carried out for the Department of Antiquities in the area of Cape Kormakitis, found traces of habitation of the pre-Greek Middle Bronze Age around Kapouti.⁷

In 1966 the Department of Antiquities excavated a tomb of the geometric ancient Greek period, about one kilometre north-west of the village (in the publication the locality is written “Palloures”). The tomb contained amphorae, jugs and bowls in various local pottery styles, a small horn-shaped jug and a lentoid flask. The Cypriot archaeologist Vassos Karageorghis, who published the find, notes that it was the first sign of a cemetery at the site, unknown until then.⁸

Frankish rule

In the 1460s King James II gave Kapouti as a fief to Dimitri da Coron, together with Strovolos.⁹ According to Mas Latrie, Dimitrios Coron was captain of Pentageia, and James, to reward him for his loyalty, made him captain of Pafos.¹⁰

The order of 1468 shows one side of the inhabitants’ life. The francomati of the village, that is, the free peasants, were obliged to keep watch duty, which according to Mas Latrie was connected with guarding the area against pirate raids. Because they wanted to leave the village on account of this duty and settle in knights’ villages, the king ordered that an elderly serf with no plough of his own be sent from the royal bailiwick of Morfou to keep the watch permanently in their place; the francomati would pay his dues and his keep. The village was then held as a fief by the same nobleman, who is written here “Dimitri de Ceuron”.¹¹

Turkish rule

In the property survey made by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Kapouti is recorded as a mixed village with 18 property-holding households. Among the owners were two priests. The households had mainly fields, one wheat field, a small cotton field, twelve threshing floors, a fold, 35 olive trees, about a hundred sheep and goats, oxen and a few cows. Among the owners three converts to Islam are also recorded, Moustafa, Achmet and Husein.¹²

Churches and monasteries

The village’s Greek Orthodox parish church, in the south-eastern part of the old core of the settlement, is dedicated to Saint Georgios. It has two aisles: its south aisle dates from the 15th or 16th century and the north aisle from the 18th. Agios Georgios is an Ancient Monument.¹³

The churches of Agios Nikolaos, the Archangel Michael, Agion Mandilion and the Transfiguration of Christ also stood on the village’s land.

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 the main crops were citrus, mostly grapefruit and oranges, vegetables, fodder crops and cereals. The south-western part of the village’s land lay over the rich aquifer of Morfou, and the citrus groves were watered from boreholes; in 1966 they covered about 86 hectares. Stock-raising was also important: in 1973 the village’s stock-farmers kept about 1,300 sheep and 1,800 goats. A number of inhabitants worked in neighbouring Morfou.¹⁴ In 1946 the New Cooperative Credit Society of Kalo Chorio (Kapouti) was founded.

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village’s population grew thanks to its fertile land and its nearness to Morfou. According to the same source, the village had 243 inhabitants in 1881, 308 in 1891, 344 in 1901, 348 in 1911 and 418 in 1921.¹⁵ In 1946 Kapouti had 613 inhabitants, of whom 606 were Orthodox and 7 Muslims (the 1946 census recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 766 inhabitants, all Greeks, and in 1973 933 Greeks. In the school year 1973–74 the village’s Greek primary school had 141 pupils and five teachers.

National struggles

In the Enosis plebiscite of 1950, 326 inhabitants signed. The Register of EOKA Fighters lists one Greek inhabitant of the village who took part in or supported the Struggle.

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Kapouti was taken by the Turkish army and its Greek population was ethnically cleansed. Since then the Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent the return of the inhabitants.

Four inhabitants of Kapouti, all soldiers, were recorded as missing. The remains of one have been identified, while the other three are still missing. One vanished at Kapouti itself, and the other three in the areas of Lapithos, Mia Milia and Gomaristra on the Pentadaktylos. Six dead of 1974 are recorded at Kapouti itself: one soldier and five civilians, inhabitants of the village.

The occupation authorities have illegally converted the church of Agios Georgios into a mosque.¹⁶ The crosses have been removed and the bells are missing from the bell tower. The Greek Orthodox cemetery, south of the village, is abandoned and the crosses of the graves lie scattered on the ground.