Thanks to its port, Limassol would always come into contact with other cultures and residents would be bestowed with new ideas and as such, the city served as a "passageway" for the development of the island. There are numerous paradigms where Limassol was the first to welcome products from abroad. These were brought over into the country by important personalities, in order to be ultimately used and exploited by all of the cities.
The most important ones are the following:
1. The first advertising agency in Cyprus, was established in Limassol, during the beginning of the 1930s under the name ‘The Atelier’ from the painter/sketcher Victoras Ioannides and Georgios Fasouliotis.
2. In 1881, the hospital of Limassol was the first hospital in the whole of Cyprus to be established. The hospital of Nicosia was established in 1883.
3. The first Greek-Cypriot Mayor, Christodoulos Karidis, was appointed in Limassol by the British, in 1878. He replaced the Turkish Kaymakam and he was then unanimously elected by both communities.
4. In February 1896, the first pancyprian sports games were organised in Limassol. During these games, the champion of the athletic centre ‘GSO’, Anastasios Andreou, was selected in order to participate in the first Olympic Games in Athens which took place in the same year. This made him the first Cypriot Olympic athlete.
5. The athlete of ‘GSO’ Domnitsa Lanitou takes part in the first pancyprian track and field games in 1928 as the first female athlete in Cyprus. She also takes part in the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 as the first female athlete of the whole Greek nation.
6. In 1895, the revolutionary invention of X rays by the German physicist and nobel prize winner Wilhem Roentgen, reached Cyprus for the first time in 1899 thanks to a progressive scientist and doctor from Limassol, called Sokratis Araouzos.
7. The first national educator and litterateur, Polikseni Loizias, is rightly considered the first Cypriot feminist who has contributed in a significant and innovative way in the female emancipation in Cyprus. Among other important works of hers, she founded the first female guild in Cyprus called the ‘Union of Greek Women’, the first fitness centre called ‘Palladion’ and she introduced the idea of sports for women in schools.
8. In 1929, during the carnival celebrations, the first beauty pageant was organised. Martha Perdiou Papadopoulou was selected as the first beauty queen.
9. The first car ever to circulate in Cyprus was driven in the city of Limassol in 1907, when Dr. Pieris brought it with him from France, where he studied. It was a two-seater red Peugeot.
10. The first funicular railway ever constructed in Cyprus was in Limassol in the area of "Enaerios" (enaerios = in the air). Departure point of the wagons was the warehouses of the plant in Pano Amiantos and arrival point was the city of Limassol.
11. The first woman lawyer in Cyprus, who also served as Minister and Attorney General, was Stella Cacoyannis-Soulioti (sister of the internationally acclaimed film director Michael Cacoyannis from Limassol).
12. The first woman doctor in Cyprus was the Limassolian Maria Roussou (1902-1955). She studied medicine at the University of Athens, which was something unusual for those times. She practiced as a doctor for a few years until she got married.
13. The first woman obstetrician - gynecologist in Cyprus was Aristoniki Ioannidou from Limassol. She studied in Athens and Paris and then returned to Cyprus and began practicing in 1938.
14. The year 1926 marked the secret establishment of the Communist Party in Cyprus. Among its founders was Katina Nicolaou from Limassol. She deserves being considered as a revolutionary figure of her time, as well as the first female politician in the country.
15. The struggles of Cypriot women for equal rights and equal employment opportunities were vindicated to a great extent with the appointment of the first female bank employee, Eleftheria Moniatou from Limassol (1920).
16. Limassol is proud to have registered two successes as far as the arts is concerned, and particularly painting. A painting exhibition was organized in 1898 with the participation of a woman, possibly the first ever in Cyprus, Elpiniki (Kiki) Sozou. What is also important is the achievement of Loukia Nicolaides (1909 - 1994), the first woman to study painting and specifically, in the famous School of Fine Arts (École des Beaux-Arts) in Paris. In 1933, she presented her first solo exhibition, also the first woman to do so.
17. Eleni Vassiliou - Treppou became the first woman taxi-driver in Cyprus in 1911, just 4 years after the arrival of the first car in Limassol and on the island of Cyprus in general.
* Special thanks to Mr. Titos Kolotas for granting us the archival material
* 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.
