Ypsonas (Ipsonas)

Ypsonas is one of the largest villages in the district of Limassol and is located about 7 kilometres west of the city of Limassol. The south part of the village is within the administrative borders of the British military base of Akrotiri - Episkopi.

Ypsonas is built at an average altitude of 90 meters. The landscape of the village inclines from the north to the south. The altitude decreases from 476 meters in the north borders to 90 meters in the settlement and to 20 meters in its south borders. Ypsonas receives an average annual rainfall of about 440 millimetres; vines (winemaking and table grape varieties), cereals, citrus, almond, olive, locust, and a few fruit trees are cultivated in the area. Today, Ypsonas has a flourishing industrial development. The number of persons working in industries is the 4th largest in the district of Limassol. The main types of industry developed are sausage making, cheese-making, sawmills, metal and nickel-plating items, the manufacturing of refrigerators, cement blocks and cement pipes, the manufacturing of wooden furniture, as well as the packaging of agricultural products.
Apart from agriculture, the very limited stockbreeding, and industry, a large portion of the active population of the village is employed in other sectors of employment such as the hotel, restaurant, trade, transportation, and services sector.

Ypsonas is a village that can amaze you with its spectacular increase of population from the past century until today. You will find it hard to believe that this settlement that had only 3 inhabitants today numbers 8500. Indeed, in 1881 the village had 3 inhabitants that increased to 4 in 1891. In 1901 the inhabitants increased to 21, only to be reduced to 12 in 1911.
In 1921 the population run into 167. In 1931 the inhabitants numbered 256 and by 1946 they increased to 492. In 1960 they increased to 1496 and in 1973 to 2043. In 1982 the inhabitants numbered 3061 and in 2001 the population increased to 6250.

Although Ypsonas is considered by many as having been created during recent years by the inhabitants of other villages (mainly Lofou), which owned land in the region, things are not quite so. Ypsonas existed as a settlement since medieval years. De Masse Latri includes Ypsonas among the villages that belonged to the King of Cyprus himself during the era of the Frank domination. The village is marked under the name Ipsona in old maps. The village probably must have been destroyed in 1426 when the Mamelukes of Egypt invaded Cyprus through the bay of Avdimou, unsuccessfully attacked Episkopi, marched toward Limassol which they seized. Then again it could have been destroyed in 1570 with the invasion of the Turks in Cyprus as they landed in Limassol which they sacked and then -burning and looting -arrived at Polemidia.

After that many inhabitants of Lofou would seasonally migrate to Ypsonas so as to cultivate or harvest the crops of their fields in the region. Thus, for many years, people from Lofou inhabited the village for a few months per year. These people vacated Ypsonas from January until March and from the middle of August until November. Finally, many of the migrating farmers remained permanently in Ypsonas, abandoning Lofou and the other neighbouring villages. This started occurring during the era of the British domination. The love of the inhabitants of Ypsonas for the land can be seen through the fact that many of the locals own land in areas neighbouring the community. Some of those are Erimi, Kolossi, Koilani, Paramytha, Alassa, Polemidia, Trachoni, and Kantou.

(Source: http://www.ipsonas.org)