TIMIOS STAVROS TOU AGIASMATI CHURCH

This late ^15th-century Greek Orthodox church (Ιερός Ναός Τιμίου Σταυρού του Αγιασμάτι/Ieros Naos Timiou Stavrou tou Agiasmati) is home to remarkable frescoes and is one of ten painted churches on the Troodos listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Once part of a monastery and dedicated to the Holy Cross, it owes its name Agiasmati to a sacred spring(agiasma) . This spring could be that of the Panagia Hodigitria monastery in Constantinople, suggesting that it was founded by Byzantine monks who took refuge in Cyprus after the Ottoman capture of the capital in 1453. Built of stone and covered by a double-pitched roof of wooden tiles, the church was erected around 1494 thanks to a donation from a priest named Petros Peratis, as attested by the inscription that can still be read above the north entrance. On the outer south wall, Pope Petros and his wife Pepani are depicted together placing the miniature of the church in the hands of Christ. Other paintings can also be seen on the west and south outer walls, including a depiction of the Last Judgment.

Naive art, Byzantine and Latin influences. Here we know the artist who decorated the entire church. His name appears above the south entrance: Philippe Goul (Philippos Goul), a Syrian Orthodox who also worked on the Agios Mamas church in Louvaras. The interior, modest in size (9.50 x 3.70 m), is entirely painted - including the joists and beams - with depictions from the New Testament. The style is particularly interesting, combining local naive art, the Byzantine iconographic trend of the Palaeologos period and Italian Renaissance aesthetics. The Latin influence is particularly perceptible in the Crucifixion scene (west wall gable), with four angels circling the Cross. The representation of the Holy Cross, which gives the church its name, appears only as a miniature in the blind arch on the north wall. More surprising are the scenes of the Invention and Exaltation of the Cross, themes common in the West but very rare in Byzantine iconography. Finally, the finest example of local naive aesthetics is the majestic Saint Mammas (Agios Mamas) seated on the back of a lion with a haphazard morphology, a very popular figure in Cypriot religious painting in the Middle Ages.