Northwest of the old centre of Oroklini and 200 metres west of the old Holy Church dedicated to Archangel Michael, a small chapel dedicated to Agia Ekaterini is found build in a rock. The reason that the believers built into the vertical rock and created the small shrine is the source that “offered” its sweet, crystal water to the settlers of Oroklini for many centuries.
The source that has the name of Agia Ekaterini was the reason and the mean of creation of the settlement of Oroklini. Great amount of water used to gush from the “root” of the vertical slope of the Arodafni hill. The hill that “hugs” the village and “hides” it from 3 directions, thus leaving a huge field spreading from its outskirts, until its shores.
The water from the source, watered the fields, the animals and the humans. The water that remained was gathered in a basin, just a hundred metres away from the shore and created a lake, which is today called the “Lake of Oroklini”.
The perfect quality of water as well as the great amounts of it that the faucet of Agia Ekaterini “gave”, which made it unique in the whole district of Larnaca, which suffered from droughts quite often, was transformed into a pole of attraction for notables of that period, who created big estates. Thus, as time passed, Oroklini was created, with its beautiful mansions, some of which still exist today and we can study them.
The water of the source was drained with open canals towards the estates, as well as to some kind of irrigation system of the village. A very interesting and beautiful construction, a basin is found 50 metres southeast of the source, at the junction of 3 roads.
Today the source is called “Agiasma” (Holy Water) of Agia Ekaterini.
