Angastina

Angastina(Greek: Αγκαστίνα, Turkish: Aslanköy) is a village in the Famagusta District of Cyprus, located around 20 km east of Nicosia, on the main road to Famagusta. It is perched on a gentle river terrace chalk escarpment over the Pedias river plain at 66 metres above sea level.

Etymology

It is suggested by Nearchos Clerides, in Villages and Cities of Cyprus, that Angastina had been named from the Frank word gastina for crust. This alludes to the thick rocky shell rock (kafkala-Greek Cypriot for crust) that covered the surrounding mesas and on which the last version of the village was built. He suggests that name was modified by the locals and made their own by adding the A. This is a likely possibility as the nearby village of Mora was "entirely a Frankish town under Frankish occupation. It was owned by the House of Moravit and it was named Mora for short. Cyprus at that time was ruled by the French House of Lusignan." The Franks arrived in Cyprus "in the high and late Middle Ages, between 1192 and 1489. However George Jeffrey speculates that the name (on ancient maps "Angestrina ") may be from "neo-latin origin (1500–1900)". Christos Diakos in Angastina - History and Traditions agrees, pointing out that the "The church of Agios Therapon existed at our village since Byzantine time.