Makarios Avenue or just "avenue" for Limassolians, was mapped in 1949 as a military (bypass) road, which crosses the city diagonally. The asphalting of the road in 1964 and the rise of car use as main transportation brought the first signs of traffic, which was fixed back in the days by traffic lights. A poem by Andriana Kritikou "Makarios 3rd Avenue" refers to the traffic lights as landmark locations for the city residents.
When first opened in the early 1960s, Simillidi supermarket was one of the largest in Cyprus. It was in 70s, the rival of ESEL (another big supermarket of the city). The owner was Ioannis Simillidis. This old self-made merchant of the municipal market area saw the prospects opening up before him and seized the opportunity. The supermarket was located at the intersection of Avenue Makarios Street and Jean Sibelius. The road course back then, as stated by the only son of the merchant Rikkos Simillidis, was much more narrow and sparsely populated. When the clairvoyant merchant confided to his wife Florence, his business intentions, she answered "are you going to open a shop in the middle of nowhere?"
But success came early and reputation was soon spread around the island and had a multitude of products, many of which were imported from England. On the first floor of the building, Elysee, one of the first fashionable cafes of Limassol opened in 1965 and then the roof garden, restaurant. Soon the supermarket gave its name to the traffic lights which were installed in the area. The operation of the supermarket ended in the mid1990s, however, the place name is kept until today. The building is still there and it currently operates as a sports retailer. Ioannis Simillidis died in 2004.
Τhe name of the movie theatre Ariel which has given its name of the specific traffic lights at the junction of highways Makarios and Agia Zoni, was not taken from the name of some outlandish brand, but is the union of the first primary, two names. Aristotle and Eleni Polemitis, owners of cinema. The couple was managing cinemas, and also kept another cinema in central Limassol, named Rekal. The movie theatre Ariel stared its business around 1966 and was consisted of two theatre rooms, a winter (today’s Warehouses of Stavrakis) and a summer one. The cinema theatre closed during 1980s.
For the older Limassol residents, Cafe Paris traffic lights were also known as The Epaminondas Lights.
Epaminondas was the owner of a cottage centre located before the contribution of Makarios Avenue and Ayia Fylaxeos, opposite Lanitio, since 1950. The center/restaurant/cafe had a large paved courtyard with flowers. When the weather was nice, the owner used to put tables outside and used to serve coffee and cakes day and evening, spartan snacks, brandy and beer. Music was coming out of loudspeakers while sometimes the place hosted different live band music.
The Epaminondas restaurant was demolished around 1964 an few years later (1972) Cafe Paris took its place. The famous coffee was very popular in the 1970s and was operated by Epaminondas’s nephew, a popular Cypriot actor George Zenios. An enormous eucalyptus was located outside the shop. Café Paris closed in 1985.
Foui car sales shop reputation was so great that despite the fact that it was just above the junction of Makarios Street and Georgiou Averoff, it still gave its name to the traffic lights which were installed there. The store is still operating today in the same place since the end of the 1960s.
Moditis was the manager of the municipal kiosk which existed until recently, to the point where Makarios avenues meet with Paphos and Misiaouli and Kavazoglou street, next to Provita factory.
During the 2nd World War, the military airport started from that specific point and stretched from Efstathios Kyriakos bus stations until the former central warehouse of Lanitis. The kiosk opened in the early 1970s and for many years with the same name. It was demolished for street widening purposes.
* NOTE: The tributes of the Project "History of Limassol" present information that has emerged from historical research thus far. Any new data is embedded into the tributes, once it has been confirmed.
