Panagia Angeloktisti

The church of Panagia (Our Lady) tis Aggeloktistis is situated in the northwestern end of the village of Kiti, 12 kilometres to the northwest of the city of Larnaka and the ancient city of Kition. It was built in the 11th century over the ruins of a 5th century early Christian basilica. The basilica had a semi-circular synthronon, still surviving in the bema of the 11th century church. According to local tradition, the residents of ancient Kition moved to Kiti in order to escape the Arab invasions. In Kiti they decided to erect a church in honour of the Virgin (Panagia). While building the church, they realised that the foundations had moved to a different location overnight. After the miracle had occured the villagers then changed the location of the church and noticed that an army of angels was coming down at night to build it; hence the name ’Aggeloktisti’ (‘built by Angels’). The architectural plan of the church belongs to the type of the domed, cross-in-square structure. Its current form is a result of later additions and alterations. In the 12th century, a barrel-vaulted parekklesi (chapel) was built to the north of the temple, dedicated to the healer saints Anargiroi, Kosmas and Damianos. Medieval tombs were found outside the northern side of the chapel, and it is possible that it had a funerary character. In the end of the 13th/beginning of the 14th century, another chapel (the so-called Latiniko parekklesi (Latin Chapel), was built to the south of the church of Panagia, in order to serve the religious needs of the then rulers of Cyprus. Three coats-of-arms still survive above the chapel’s entrance. One of them belongs to the rich Frankish family Gibelet, owners of the chapel. The inscribed tombstone of Simone Renier de Gibelet, who died in 1302 still survives inside the chapel. It is quite possible that the chapel was contemporary to her burial and that it also had a funerary character. The interior of the church is decorated with significant frescoes of the 13th century, icons dated to various periods and the famous mosaic of Panagia tis Aggeloktistis. The mosaic is on the conch of the apse, inside the bema. It is considered to be one of the most significant and elaborate wall mosaics of Early Christian art. It depicts the Virgin standing, holding baby Jesus in her left arm, with the Archangels Michael and Gabriel on either side. It is the oldest, surviving monumental representation of the standing Panagia Aristerokratousa. On the inscription she is referred to as “H AGIA MARIA” (Holy Mary).
source Department of Antiquities  www.mcw.gov.cy/mcw/da/da.nsf

 

Panagia (Our Lady) tu Araka

In the central part of Cyprus, in the mountains of the Troodos range, some of the most important monuments of the history of Byzantine painting have survived. These are the painted churches which have, to this day preserved brilliant examples of various trends of Byzantine and post-Byzantine monumental art, from the 11th to the 19th century. Ten of these churches have so far been granted World Cultural Heritage status by UNESCO.
The church of Panagia (Our Lady) tou Araka is situated in a central area of the Troodos mountain range, in the area of Pitsilia, between the villages of Lagoudera and Saranti. In 1985 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Panagia tou Araka used to be the katholicon (monastery church) of a monastery bearing the same name, which seems to have been built during the second half of the 12th century, when monastic life was flourishing in Cyprus.. According to written sources, the monastery survived until the first decades of the 19th century. Today, apart from the church, a two-storied monastery building survives to the north, used as the priests' residence. It is not clear however, whether it was intended for the church to be a monastic one. Initially the church may have been a private chapel. Its name may derive from the word 'arakas', (a type of pea), or 'ierakas' (hawk).
The church is a single-aisled domed structure with a cross-shaped roof. Sometime, probably in the 14th century, it was covered with a protective timber roof with flat tiles. The steep-pitched roof extends beyond the main structure on three sides, thus forming a portico with latticed woodwork. The dome is covered by a separate wooden roof, a feature which is unique amongst the churches of Troodos. During the 18th century, the west wall was demolished and the church was extended.
The entire interior of the church is painted. According to an inscription above the north entrance, the church was decorated with the donations of Leon Afthentis in December 1192. The paintings are of exceptional quality and follow the late Comnenian style constituting the most complete series of frescoes of the Middle Byzantine period in Cyprus. Both the style and the iconographic programme express the trends of the art of Constantinople. Bearing in mind that almost nothing survives from this period in the Empire's capital, one realises how important this monument is in the history of Byzantine art.
It is believed by some that the painter is Theodoros Apsevdis. Two portable icons, which represent Jesus Christ and Panagia Arakiotissa and are exhibited in the Byzantine Museum of the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation in Lefkosia, come from this church and are attributed to the same painter.
The frescoes in the apse of the bema are of a different style to those in the rest of the church, and it is believed that they were painted by another artist a little earlier than 1192. A rarity worth noting is the depiction of the seven Cypriot saints painted on the semi-cylindrical apse wall. The Virgin on the blind arch above the north entrance and some other scenes were painted in the 14th century. The church was decorated for the last time in the 17th century and it is during this last phase that the Saints on the exterior north wall and the wooden iconostasis, which dates to 1673, were created. (source Department of Antiquitie, Cyprus)