Voroklini or Oroklini is a village of Larnaca and is found 8500 metres north of the town. It is a rapidly developing community since in just a few years from a small village of a few hundreds of settlers, it has transformed into a community of 7000. It is one of the best tourist areas of Cyprus, since it is chosen by thousands of foreigners and locals to spend their holidays. From the shores until the old village centre that is 2500 metres from them, huge tourist accommodations have been built.
A few hundred Cypriot pensioners from England, people who emigrated during the difficult years after the Turkish invasion, chose Oroklini to buy homes. Its beaches are clean and organised, extending for more than 4 kilometres and are only 10 minutes away from the tourist settlement.
In this tourist area, you can find everything in relation with a comfortable life. There are all kinds of services, shops, supermarkets, banks, a post office, restaurants and places for entertainment. Comfortable roads take you quickly and safely to all directions. There are parking places even at the beaches, luxury hotels built “on the waves”, with green gardens, thus making your holidays fantastic. As far as it concerns prices, we should admit that they are really very low.
Apart from the tourist area of Oroklini, there is also the old centre of the village. There is where a diamond is “hidden”. There are neighbourhoods that really take you to other periods and dimensions. When walking along the streets and two and one-storey mansions, you realise that this is where people with pride and nobility lived.
In Oroklini you can find many kinds of noble architecture. In some neighbourhoods there are two-storey houses with a single, arched door whose arch is covered with stone and at the point of junction it has the sign of the family, or some other shape. From the door you can access the internal yard, where the rest of the rooms are built around it, as well as the auxiliary constructions (paddock, barn, milking room, cook house). In a corner away from the constructions, there is a necessary well. From this internal yard, a stone staircase takes you to the mezzanine which has a wooden, sheltered balcony. The houses are built out of stone until the first ceiling, and then it is made up of plinths that were made in the area in which the house was built, out of dirt and straw.
The technique of architecture needed for the construction of the houses in Oroklini is different from every other techniques we find in the villages of Cyprus, either they are on lowlands or highlands.
North of the old village centre, there is a church dedicated to Archangel Michael. It is an amazing stone construction and a beautiful vaulted Basilica of the 17th century.
On the peak of a high hill that literally “hugs” the village with its form, is where the chapel of Prophet Ilias is found. It is a stone built Basilica and it was built at two different periods and this is why it has this “strange” form. Next to it, there is a downhill, helical path taking you to the area called “Pathkies tou Agiou” (Pathkia = footprint).
South of the chapel, there is a picnic area where you can have panoramic views of the whole area of Oroklini and its shores from. When descending the hill, that the locals call the “hill of Arodafni” there is a source that used to provide the village with potable water on its base. In the area a small worshipping place was created in the rock, dedicated to Agia Ekaterini, since the sources has her name.
A few hundred metres southeast of the worshipping area, there is an old construction that was the reservoir of water collection and disposal to the homes. It is a square water basin built of stone.
More south, at a small distance out of the old centre, there is a new, recent church also dedicated to Archangel Michael.
If for any reason you find yourselves in the area of Oroklini, do not limit yourselves at the beaches and tourist accommodations. Visit the old village and walk among the beautiful houses and traditional coffee shops. At this period of time, some roads are covered with rectangular tiles, but this does not decrease the area’s beauty at all.
