Stavrovouni Monastery

Stavrovouni Monastery is situated on the highest point of the mountain of the same name (Stavrovouni), which is in located in Larnaca.

This mountain was previously known to be Olympus, however a higher point of the Troodos Mountain has that name today. The Stavrovouni is devoted to the Holy Cross. In Greek Stavrovouni means the mountain of the cross.

The monastery of Stavrovouni was established by St. Heleni who was the mother of Constantine the Great. St. Heleni was on a journey to the Holy Land when she found the three crosses which Jesus and the two thieves had been crucified on. She then excavated them from the ground and desired to take them to Constantinople, however she was forced to leave one of them in Cyprus.

It is said that the Holy Cross was then placed in the peak of a mountain in a miraculous way. Also a string light came out of the peak. St Heleni was not able to take the Holly Cross out of the mountain and therefore left a piece of it there and built a church near it. Today, the Holy Cross is no longer there and nobody knows what has occurred to it.