Around 28 kilometres west of the city of Limassol is the village of Paramali in the region of Limassol. To the south of the settlement, the British military base of Akrotiri-Episkopi encompasses a significant portion of its administrative area. On the eastern bank of the namesake river, at an average altitude of 90 metres, the town of Paramali is situated.
According to one account, the name Paramali is derived from the preposition “para,” which means “next to,” and the word “malin,” which means “property.” A second version interprets the first word to be Pera malin as opposed to Para malin.
In mediaeval maps, the name for Paramali is Piramati.
According to information, Paramali once belonged to the solitary order of the Knights Templar, but after the order’s collapse it came under the jurisdiction of the Ioannites and was placed on the list of settlements of the Great Commandery 1308 meedra Kolassi.
Paramali, together with the villages of Alektora and Potami, was a royal estate of the Vailat of Pachna during the Frankish era, according to information from de Mas Latri, a Venetian account from the 16th century.
With the Ottoman takeover of Cyprus in 1570 and 1571, Paramali fell to the confiscated lands. Since then, Ottomans moved in the hamlet, and the village remained mixed until 1974. During the years when ties between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots were mixed, they were excellent.
During the period of intercommunal unrest, a Turkish Cypriot enclave was established in the village, and a large number of Greek Cypriots with their families were forced to flee their houses. Few remained in the village, while others arrived simply to labour in the farmers’ fields. During the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the Turkish Cypriots relocated to the northern half of the island.
Nowadays, the village is populated by refugees of Greek Cypriot descent.
