LIMASSOL

Greek Lemess, Turkish Limasol, city and chief port of the Republic of Cyprus. The city lies on Akrotiri Bay, on the southern coast, southwest of Nicosia; it is the island's second largest city and is also its chief tourist centre. Limassol's rise from a humble market town between the ancient settlements of Amathus and Curium took place at the end of the Byzantine Empire, when Richard I the Lion-Heart landed there in 1191 and was married to Berengaria of Navarre in the chapel of a castle fortress, now a regional museum and one of only two surviving buildings of the period. After the Genoese seizure of Famagusta in 1372, the port's fortunes increased; but damage from numerous incursions between 1414 and 1426, the Turkish invasion of 1570, and a disastrous earthquake had reduced its population to 150 by 1815. Its resurgence dates from the end of the 19th century, when the island came under British administration. Limassol's harbour facilities, which were extended in the 1960s to improve its shallow-water location, were increased by a new port (operational in 1974) that was able to provide berthing spaces for large vessels. The Turkish intervention (1974) in northern Cyprus and the closing of the island's main port at Famagusta made Limassol the chief port of the Republic of Cyprus. The port has also taken over much of the trade that once passed through Beirut. In the 1970s and '80s Limassol also became home to many thousands of prosperous Arab refugees from Lebanon and immigrants from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Limassol's bustling port exports wines, beverages, fruits, and vegetables. Bricks, tiles, shoes, textiles, furniture, cement, buttons, and soft drinks are manufactured; fruit is canned; and chrome and asbestos are processed. Legumes, vegetables, oranges, lemons, grapefruits, nuts, and apples are grown on the adjacent coastal plain, and goats and cattle are raised as well. The Troodos Mountains lie inland from the plain. Limassol city is linked by roads with Moni, Akrotri, and Episkopi. Pop. (1982) city, 74,782; (1989 est.) metropolitan area, 120,000.