PAPHOS METROPOLIS ECCLESIASTICAL MUSEUM
This museum houses around a hundred icons, including the oldest in Cyprus, that of Saint Marina, dating from the or century.
This museum (Εκκλησιαστικό Μουσείο Ιεράς Μητροπόλεως Πάφου/Ekklisiastiko Mousio Ieras Mitropaleos Pafou, Ecclesiastical Museum of Paphos) belongs to the Metropolis of Paphos, i.e. the Greek Orthodox bishopric of the region. Founded in Paphos in 1983, it has been housed in a former school in Geroskipou since 2017. Among the hundred or so icons, books, documents and liturgical objects on display here, the icon of Saint Marina, the oldest on the island, is particularly noteworthy. Painted in the 7th or 8th century, it is dedicated to Saint Margaret of Antioch, also known as Saint Marina. Damaged, it preserves details of the saint's martyrdom on the left-hand side. It is all the more precious for having survived the iconoclastic crisis of 726-843. It comes from the Agia Marina church in Filousa Kelokedaron, near Arsos on the Troodos, and features a 13th-century icon of St. George on the reverse. Note also the museum's largest icon, with its magnificent reds, that of St. George Pervoliatis. Dating from the 16th century, it depicts the saint riding on the sea with a child on his rump. It comes from an ancient church in Paphos, and its epithet Pervoliatis ("of the orchards") evokes the sacred gardens of Aphrodite. This is not the usual depiction of the saint slaying the dragon, but of the rescue of a young captive, and is very rare. In fact, the museum has the only other icon of this type in Cyprus, badly damaged and dating from the 13th century.
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