Liban Quarry

The exploitation of limestones has been carried out here since the fourteenth century, and the oldest part of the quarry called "Za Tor" is located in today's street of the same name. In 1873, a Cracow entrepreneur of Jewish origin, Bernard Liban, set up a company dealing in the production of building lime and fertilizer, stone, foundation and paving stones. The company "Quarries and limestones Leban and Ehrenpreis" at the end of the 19th century was the most important company in the building materials industry in Krakow. During World War II, there was a Penal Building Service Camp for prisoners of Polish descent. The Nazis employed here about 800 people working 14 hours a day without holidays and Sundays. Today, a memorial after this period is a monument in a niche dedicated to the prisoners who died there. After the war, the plant was nationalized and employing up to 110 employees. In 1986, the deposit was deemed exhausted thus the site abandoned. In 1993 Spielberg used Liban in his Schindler's List and though most of the set removed, some traces remain mixed with the genuine leftovers (like the pathway with Jewish headstones which remained from the film set up). 

Keep in mind that you are entering the quarry at your own risk! If you want to access the towers, be careful of the rusty plates and corners! Also test before you step, especially the ladders. The attached map (as photo) may assist you to find the places

Panagia Angeloktisti

The church of Panagia (Our Lady) tis Aggeloktistis is situated in the northwestern end of the village of Kiti, 12 kilometres to the northwest of the city of Larnaka and the ancient city of Kition. It was built in the 11th century over the ruins of a 5th century early Christian basilica. The basilica had a semi-circular synthronon, still surviving in the bema of the 11th century church. According to local tradition, the residents of ancient Kition moved to Kiti in order to escape the Arab invasions. In Kiti they decided to erect a church in honour of the Virgin (Panagia). While building the church, they realised that the foundations had moved to a different location overnight. After the miracle had occured the villagers then changed the location of the church and noticed that an army of angels was coming down at night to build it; hence the name ’Aggeloktisti’ (‘built by Angels’). The architectural plan of the church belongs to the type of the domed, cross-in-square structure. Its current form is a result of later additions and alterations. In the 12th century, a barrel-vaulted parekklesi (chapel) was built to the north of the temple, dedicated to the healer saints Anargiroi, Kosmas and Damianos. Medieval tombs were found outside the northern side of the chapel, and it is possible that it had a funerary character. In the end of the 13th/beginning of the 14th century, another chapel (the so-called Latiniko parekklesi (Latin Chapel), was built to the south of the church of Panagia, in order to serve the religious needs of the then rulers of Cyprus. Three coats-of-arms still survive above the chapel’s entrance. One of them belongs to the rich Frankish family Gibelet, owners of the chapel. The inscribed tombstone of Simone Renier de Gibelet, who died in 1302 still survives inside the chapel. It is quite possible that the chapel was contemporary to her burial and that it also had a funerary character. The interior of the church is decorated with significant frescoes of the 13th century, icons dated to various periods and the famous mosaic of Panagia tis Aggeloktistis. The mosaic is on the conch of the apse, inside the bema. It is considered to be one of the most significant and elaborate wall mosaics of Early Christian art. It depicts the Virgin standing, holding baby Jesus in her left arm, with the Archangels Michael and Gabriel on either side. It is the oldest, surviving monumental representation of the standing Panagia Aristerokratousa. On the inscription she is referred to as “H AGIA MARIA” (Holy Mary).
source Department of Antiquities  www.mcw.gov.cy/mcw/da/da.nsf