Traditional statue in place ahead of Limassol wine festival

A seven-metre statue of a winegrower was on Monday placed in its traditional spot in Limassol’s municipal garden ahead of the city’s 63rd Wine Festival.

The festival is set to begin on September 28 and will last until October 6.

The statue, known as vragaman, is of a man in traditional Cypriot dress, including a waistcoat and the iconic baggy trousers, known as a vrakas, holding a traditional wine jug in one hand and a bunch of grapes in the other.

The statue’s positioning was serenaded by a choir and hailed by the city’s mayor Yiannis Armeftis, who said that 1,000 collectors bottles of wine will be produced for the event.

He also pointed out that the tourism deputy ministry had declared 2024 “the year of commandaria”, a traditional Cypriot dessert wine made from two types of indigenous Cypriot grapes, xynisteri and mavro.

Commandaria holds the European Union’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status and has been recognised as such by the United States and Canada.

Legislation passed in 1990 stipulates that it can only be produced in a total of 14 villages in the foothills of the Troodos mountains in the Limassol district.