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Must-seeUNESCO

Monastery of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis

Part of the Painted Churches in the Troodos Region, a UNESCO World Heritage site

Local name: Μονή του Αγίου Ιωάννη του Λαμπαδιστή

Collection: Cyprus Basics Exam · Cyprus · Open in OpenStreetMap

The monastery church under its timber roof
The monastery church under its timber roof · Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

The story

The monastery stands in the Marathasa Valley in the Troodos Mountains, on the east bank of the Setrachos River, opposite the village of Kalopanagiotis. The main church is the eleventh-century church of Saint Heraclidius. Next to it is a chapel over the tomb of the local saint, John Lampadistis, almost entirely rebuilt in the eighteenth century. In the second half of the fifteenth century the so-called Latin Chapel was added, and later the whole complex was covered with a single wooden roof. The paintings of the Latin Chapel, from around 1500, are the most complete ensemble in Cyprus in the Italo-Byzantine style, where Byzantine painting meets the Italian Renaissance. According to written sources, the monastery was active until the early nineteenth century. In 1985 the complex was added to the UNESCO list “Painted Churches in the Troodos Region”.

Kalopanagiotis and Pedoulas are villages of the Marathasa area in the Troodos Mountains, Nicosia District. The Monastery of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis in Kalopanagiotis is one of the ten churches on the UNESCO list “Painted Churches in the Troodos Region” (inscribed in 1985).

Visiting

Admission to the church is free (according to the Department of Antiquities). Opening hours differ between the Department of Antiquities and visitcyprus.com, so check before you go. Nearby is a small Byzantine museum with icons; according to visitcyprus, admission is €1 and it is closed on Sunday.

Photos

The buildings of St. John Lampadistis Monastery
The buildings of St. John Lampadistis Monastery · Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Sources

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