HISTORY
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The village of Kaminaria is built on an altitude of 780 metres and is surrounded by mountaintops which reach up to 1025 metres.
Administratively it belongs to the Limassol district, ecclesiastically to the Metropolis of Morphou and it is developed on the hill slops of a small valley which across it runs the Diarizou River which is one of the largest rivers in Cyprus.
The village owns its name to the many furnaces (kaminia) which existed in the area during older times and where used to heat up pieces of pine wood so that the resin was removed and used for the coating of clay pots so that they would be airtight. Several of these remained reserved until the early 20th century but the cultivation of the land, on which they where positioned, with vineyards meant their eventual disappearance.
The oldest testimony about the village comes from a document dated back to the first decades of the 16th century which it includes the names of villages of Cyprus during the Franc occupational period (1191-1489). As it is distinctly noted there where two separate settlements then, the Pano and Kato Kaminaria, which belonged to the fief of the Count of Edessa. According to local tradition the villages where located in the areas of Orpolis and Ktistis respectively but gradually their residents moved to the current location of the village which offered them greater protection in the event that the invaders would approach the area. The creation of the new settlement is positioned around the 16th century and possibly during the first years of the Turkish occupation (1571-1878) since in a related document of 1594 which is now kept safe in the records of the Holly Monastery of Kykkos the village is referred to as Kaminaria. Confirmation of its unification around this period also comes from three Ottoman documents of 1595, 1683 and 1715 which are also kept safe in the records of the Monastery of Kykkos and on them the village is referred to as Kaminaria without any mention over separated parts.
In the area of the village there are four churches which are dedicated to Ayios Georgios, Ayios Ermolaos, the Madonna and Ayios Vasilios. More information regarding the churches can be found in the special Church page.
During the Turkish occupation period besides the export of resin the residents of the village where also involved with 
agriculture and stockbreeding. Initially agriculture was focused on the production of wheat and barley which was their main source of food. The primitive means they used in combination with the rocky and dry land of their area forced them to work really hard in order to prepare the soil. They also cultivated some other first necessity food products such as the famous Maratheftikes potatoes and the well known Maratheftika beans, a portion of which they would trade with products produced in other areas such as peas, lentils, garlic, onions and black eyed peas which after being stored they where used throughout the year. Many acres which where not possible to water where turned into vineyards where usually varieties of white and black grapes where planted which produced well sought after wines to the consumers. The vineyards besides the wine and zivania (local drink) offered many other products which where a part of the local food alimony such as raisins, soutzouko, kiofteria, palouze and epsima. In Kaminaria they even cultivated dry nut trees such as walnuts and almonds as well as olive trees which were an important part of daily food and where stored in pots for use throughout the year. From the olives they took oil which was stored in large clay jars that each family kept in a spare room of their house. During the English occupational years agriculture was extended to the cultivation of fruit trees mainly cherries, apples, pears, prunes and peaches.
Stockbreeding was very limited and took place on a per house basis with the breeding of some goats, some chicken and a pig which they raised to be slaughtered during the Christmas season. From the goat milk they made the halloumi, anari and trahana while from its meat, after it was sried in the sun, they made apohti and tsamarella which where types of salted meat products which could be preserved for long time periods. From the pigs meat they made smoked meat products such as hiromeri, lountza, lardi and sausages as well as the koumniasta which were stored in clay vases and preserved inside pressed fat.
The economy of the village from the day it was founded until the end of the English occupation years was exclusively oriented towards agriculture, a fact which made it extremely vulnerable towards the climate conditions. That is why its residents sought for extra ways of making a living so that they could survive and became involved with basket making, pottery, weaving, breeding of silkworms, produce of raisins and soutzouko, dried fruit, beekeeping and others which resulted in increasing their petty income.
Daily life in the village was extremely difficult. The men worked hard in the fields, took care of the family funds and had the final word in every family issue. The social perceptions of the time did not allow the women to carry any other role apart from that of the farm lady, the wife and the mother. That is why the residents did not make a habit of sending their daughters to school during the older years since they believed education would not be of much value in their life. The girls who did go to the primary school, founded in 1882, most of the times postponed their lessons up to 2 or 3 years so they could take care of their younger children of the family or their domestic animals. The harsh living conditions limited the chance of locals to socialise and entertain themselves and usually they mainly did so in weddings and fairs.
This period many village residents participated in national, spiritual and social struggles of both Cyprus and Greece. Among them those who stood out where: the Archimandrites and major benefactor of the community Ieronimos Myriantheas (1838-1898) as well as the Metropolitan of Mesimvria/ Evksinos Pontous, Hariton Eyklidis (1836-1906). Several residents of the village participated in the national struggles of the 20th century such as the Balkan wars of 1912-1913, the First and Second World War, the freedom struggle of 1955-59 and the resistance to the Turkish invader in 1974.
During the English occupation period the living conditions where immensely improved. Roads where created, the methods of agriculture production where bettered and the income of the residents was improved. The first school of the community was also built with expenses paid by the Archimandrites Ieronimos Myriantheas who deposited to the Nationa Bank the amount of 750 so that the at the time teacher could get paid from the interest rates. Even so life continued to remain difficult and the cultivation, due to the weather and the morphology of the ground made the expansion of the village and improvement of their financial status impossible. After all no infrastructural work was done in the area to allow the villagers to preoccupy themselves with something additional and stay in the village. The only available work positions at the time where on the mountainside of Troodos at the Hromiou and Amiantos mines which started operating during the first decades of the 20th century. It was impossible for them to solve the massive problem of the lack of alternate occupation which the residents of Kaminaria as well as the rest of the Marathasa villages where facing resulting in the villages being gradually deserted because of the preference for the city life and migration. This phenomenon increased after the Second World War and took an avalanche turn after that. In 1960 the number of the villagers where 608 which reduced to 217 in 1982 and in 1983 the village school shut down due to lack of young ages left. Its residents today are in their majority elderly.
