Cyprus's wine city — Commandaria is the world's oldest named wine, the Carnival is the island's wildest, and the meze never ends
Limassol (Lemesos in Greek) is Cyprus's second-largest city (population 235,000) and its commercial and cultural capital — the port city on the southern coast that has shifted decisively from its industrial roots to become the island's most dynamic urban centre. The Commandaria wine region begins in the hills immediately north (Krasochoria — the wine villages), producing the sweet dessert wine made from sun-dried Xynisteri and Mavro grapes that has been in continuous production since at least the 1st century CE — the oldest named wine in the world still produced. The medieval castle (in the o…
Limassol's position as the principal Crusader logistics port gave it an outsized historical role: Richard I of England married Berengaria of Navarre here in May 1191, making it the only location outside Britain or France where an English queen has been married. The city's Commandaria wine was shipped by the Knights Hospitaller to European courts as a luxury good; the wine's name derives from the Grande Commanderie (the Crusader administrative district) in the Troodos foothills. After 1974's division of Cyprus, Limassol absorbed population from the north and grew dramatically; the post-2004 EU…