Tucked away in a corner of Akrotiri ( read English base) is the Monastery of St Nicholas of the cats. We were in search of flamingoes and ended up finding cats and a surprising number of bee eaters.
Yes, this is the name of a lovely location where the gardens of the monastery and now nunnery have roses in bloom and flowering gums. It made me think of Australia. And round about are cats - many of them, roaming around, in the car park, in the fields, in the area where they have their little cat boxes. So many different colours and coats. Some flea bitten, others friendly and purring loudly. All hopeful for a nuzzle.
From Wikipaedia "It is one of the oldest monasteries in Cyprus, and according to tradition, it was founded by Saint Helen, mother of Constantine the Great in the 4th century. It is believed that the monastery was a shelter for fugitive monks, who had been chased away during the Iconoclastic era .Legend has it that St Helen founded the monastery, and not only did she leave a piece of the Holy Wood there, but she also brought hundreds of cats in order to exterminate all the poisonous snakes which had gathered around the island due to a terrible drought. Another legend says that Constantine the Great had asked Governor Kalokeros to help exterminate the snakes of the area. He brought 1000 cats and made the monks take care of at least 100 cats each day, and feed them twice a day in order to protect them from only eating venomous snakes. During the Ottoman invasion, the Monastery was completely destroyed and the cats began to wander, which explains the large number of stray cats living in Cyprus....
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