Cyprus Churches & Chapels

Cyprus carries more churches for its size than almost anywhere in the Mediterranean, and they are not confined to the towns. Nearly every village has at least one and usually several — a parish church at the centre, a cemetery chapel at the edge, and somewhere on the surrounding slopes a small stone chapel that opens once a year on its saint’s day. This site documents 257 churches and chapels, listed district by district further down the page.

The painted churches of the Troodos

The most important group is in the mountains. Ten Painted Churches in the Troodos Region are inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, recognised for Byzantine wall paintings that survive almost complete inside small, steep-roofed buildings that look from the outside like barns. Stavros tou Agiasmati was added in 1985. The site also documents Panagia tou Araka, Panagia tou Moutoulla, Archangelos Michael at Pedoulas, Panagia Podithou at Galata and Metamorphoseos tou Sotiros as part of the same inscription.

Two more belong to the same tradition and are among the finest on the island: Panagia Asinou, hidden in the foothills near Nikitari, and Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis above Kakopetria. None of these are grand buildings. The point of them is what is on the walls.

Byzantine, Gothic and something stranger

Away from the Troodos the range widens considerably. Panagia Angeloktisti at Kiti keeps a sixth-century mosaic in its apse. The Church of Saint Lazarus stands in the middle of Larnaca over what tradition holds to be the tomb of Lazarus, and gives the town its Greek name. In the walled city of Famagusta, Agios Nikolaos Cathedral is a full Gothic cathedral of the Lusignan period, converted after 1571 into the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque and still in use as one.

Then there are the ones that do not fit any category. Around Xylofagou two churches are built into caves. Agia Solomoni in Paphos is a catacomb, its entrance tree hung with votive rags. At Protaras, Profitis Ilias sits on a rock above the resort at the top of a long flight of steps, and is worth the climb as much for the view as for the chapel.

Where they are

The churches documented here run across every district: Paphos 67, Nicosia 63, Limassol 48, Famagusta 40 and Larnaca 37. Only one is recorded in Kyrenia, which has been under occupation since 1974 and is far less accessible to document. The concentrations follow the mountains rather than the coast — the villages of the Troodos and the Paphos hinterland hold most of the older and more significant buildings.

Visiting

Almost all of these are working churches rather than museums, so services take precedence and modest dress, with shoulders and knees covered, is expected. Village chapels are frequently locked with a key held locally; the painted churches of the Troodos usually have a custodian on site during the day. Photography inside is often restricted, particularly where wall paintings survive, and flash almost always is.

Cyprus is predominantly Orthodox. Around 78% of the population belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus, roughly 18% — the Turkish Cypriot community — are Muslim, and the remaining 4% is made up of Maronite, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic and Jewish communities. The Orthodox calendar puts its greatest weight on Easter rather than Christmas, and a village church is fullest at Easter, at a wedding or christening, and on the feast day of the saint it is named for.

For the island’s monasteries, which are covered separately, see Cyprus monasteries.