There are over sixty churches in Cyprus with Byzantine and post-Byzantine wall paintings. [1] [2] Of these, ten that are situated in the Troodos Mountains have been inscribed jointly on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the Painted Churches in the Troodos Region. [3] [4]
The origins of Christianity on the island may be traced to the visit of St. Paul, St. Barnabas and St. Mark around AD 46. [2] After the fall of the western Roman Empire, Cyprus came under the sway of Byzantium, although the timely discovery of Barnabas' relics helped the Church of Cyprus uphold its autocephaly. [1] The crusader Kingdom of Cyprus outlived the Fall of Constantinople by a generation; the subsequent sale of the island to Venice led to a brief period of Italo-Byzantine painting. [1] In 1571 Cyprus fell to the Ottomans and the practice of ecclesiastic wall painting largely came to an end. [1]
Subject to the layout of each church, the iconographic schema typically accords with the classic Byzantine tripartition, evident also in Byzantine mosaic decoration, the three zones comprising: (1) the dome and conch of the apse; (2) the pendentives, squinches and upper vaults; and (3) the lower, secondary vaults and walls. The first is reserved for depictions of the holiest persons, the Christ Pantokrator and the Virgin; the second for scenes from the Life of Christ and the festival cycle; and the third for the choir of intercessory saints. [2] [5]
Since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, a number of churches in the north have been looted and their wall paintings detached to supply the international antiquities trade. [6] [7] Among them is the Church of St. Evphemianos in Lysi: the thirteenth-century Christ Pantocrator mural and surrounding angels were detached, leaving their feet behind; the paintings were then acquired for the Menil Collection and displayed at the Byzantine Fresco Chapel in Houston, Texas before their repatriation to the south in 2012. [7] [8] [9] Meanwhile, many churches in the south been the subject of conservation interventions, conducted by the Department of Antiquities, Dumbarton Oaks and the Courtauld Institute of Art, aimed at reconciling the competing demands of stability, legibility and authenticity within the framework of ongoing devotional practice. [10]
Antiphonitis -- more correctly the Church of Christ Antiphonitis -- is a domed church in Cyprus, in Kyrenia District, located in the mountains near the village of Kalograia. It is reached from the network of tracks and small roads in the area of the Herbarium and Agios Amvrosios. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus.
Troodos is the largest mountain range in Cyprus, located in roughly the center of the island. Its highest peak is Mount Olympus, also known as Chionistra, at 1,952 metres (6,404 ft), which hosts the Sun Valley and North Face ski areas with their five ski lifts.
The Byzantine Fresco Chapel is a part of the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, near the University of St. Thomas. From February 1997 to February 2012, it displayed the only intact Byzantine frescoes of this size and importance in the entire western hemisphere. The Byzantine frescoes had been taken from the church of St. Evphemianos in Lysi, Cyprus in the 1980s. In September 2011, the collection announced that the frescos would be permanently returned to Cyprus in February 2012, following the conclusion of a long-term loan agreement with the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus. The frescoes had been presented at the museum by agreement with the Church of Cyprus, their owners, but the church decided not to extend the loan further. They will not return to their original home as Lysi is now in Northern Cyprus, but will be displayed at the Byzantine Museum in Nicosia. On March 4, 2012, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel closed, but re-opened in 2015 for the first in a series of site-specific projects.
Galata is a village in the Solea valley, located about 60 km west of the capital Nicosia, at an altitude of 620 m in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus. It is a popular summer tourist destination for its cooler climate in the summer months. It is also well known on the island for its fruit produce. In Galata there is Panagia tis Podithou, church, which was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 along with nine other Painted Churches in the Troödos Region, because of their unique murals and testimony to the history of Byzantine rule in Cyprus.
Kakopetria is a town in Cyprus located 55 kilometres (34 mi) southwest of the capital, Nicosia, on the north facing foothills of the Troodos Mountains. It stands at an altitude of 667 metres and it is the highest village in the Solea Valley. The community has about 1,200 permanent inhabitants and a couple hundred more who either have a summer house or are originally from Kakopetria but work in Nicosia. Near Kakopetria there is church from 11th century, Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis, UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Moutoullas is a mountain village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, at an elevation of 800 m (2,600 ft) in Marathasa Valley. In 2011, it had a population of 174.
Nikitari is a village in Cyprus. It is located in the Nicosia District.
The Painted Churches in the Troödos Region is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Troödos Mountains of central Cyprus. The complex comprises ten Byzantine churches and monasteries richly decorated with Byzantine and post-Byzantine murals:
Palaichori is a settlement in the Nicosia District of Cyprus. It comprises two villages, Palaichori Oreinis and Palaichori Morphou, separated by the Serrache River. The villages stand at an altitude of 930 m.
Lagoudera is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, located near Chandria.
Kalopanagiotis is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, located 3 km north of Moutoullas in the Troodos Mountains. It lies in Marathasa Valley. The village and its architecture include cobbled streets and footpaths, chapels and churches. Houses with tiled rooftops, balconies, courtyards and shady vine trees are characteristic of the village. The village is surrounded by the green vegetation of the Setrachos Valley.
Platanistasa is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, located 14 km southwest of Mitsero. Platanistasa is in the northern side of Troodos in Pitsilia region. The average altitude of Platanistasa is 940 meters. Pre-Christian graves are found in the village. The village of Platanistasa together with some other villages was granted 1474 to relative of Catherine Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus. In Platanistasa there is Stavros tou Agiasmati church, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site along with nine other Painted Churches in the Troödos Region.
Lythrangomi or Boltaşlı is a village in the Famagusta District of Cyprus, located on the Karpass Peninsula east of Leonarisso. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus.
The church of St. Euphemianos is a small medieval church, about 2 km to the southwest of the village of Lysi in the Famagusta district of Cyprus. It is a very small, single-dome, stone building and the interior is decorated with frescoes dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries.
Neophytos of Cyprus, Saint Neophytos, Neophytos the Recluse was a Cypriot Orthodox monk, priest, and sometime hermit, whose writings preserved a history of the early crusades. "He is considered to be one of the most significant figures of the Church of Cyprus"
The Panagia tou Araka or Arakos is a middle Byzantine Orthodox church located in Cyprus. It stands as one of the most well known and completely preserved middle Byzantine churches with mural paintings. The church is one of the ten Painted Churches in the Troödos Region, which were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 because of their outstanding murals and testimony to the history of Byzantine rule in Cyprus.
The Church of St. Nicholas of the Roof is an 11th-century Byzantine monastery that flourished in Kakopetria, Cyprus. The church is the only surviving Middle Byzantine katholikon in Cyprus during the 11th century and is not mentioned until the 13th century in surviving texts. St. Nicholas of the Roof prospered from the Middle Byzantine era until the beginning of Frankish rule, around the 12th century. Since Frankish rule the church remained open, but served as a small village church and a pilgrimage site. The church is one of the ten Painted Churches in the Troödos Region, which were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985 because of their outstanding frescoes and testimony to the history of Byzantine rule in Cyprus.
Palaichori Oreinis is a village located in the Nicosia District of Cyprus on the E 903 road. The village stands at an altitude of 930 m. Palaichori Oreinis is separated by Palaichori Morphou by the Serrache River. The two villages are known collectively as Palaichori.
David Crampton Winfield MBE was a British conservator and Byzantinist who specialised in wall paintings. The first part of his career was spent abroad, mainly in Turkey and Cyprus, and he was awarded an MBE in 1974 for his conservation work in Cyprus. In his obituary in The Times, David Winfield was described as “an investigative archaeological explorer cast in the mould of the great 19th-century scholar-travellers”.
