AGIOS MAMAS CHURCH IN LOUVARAS

This small ^15th-century Greek Orthodox church (Ιερός Ναός Αγίου Μάμα/Ieros Naos Agiou Mama) has been on Unesco's Tentative List since 2002, with a view to being added to the ten painted churches of the Troodos World Heritage Site. Dedicated to Saint Mames of Caesarea, it was built in 1455 and frescoed forty years later. The frescoes were painted by Philippe Goul, who also decorated the Timios Stavros tou Agiasmati church in Platanistasa (25 km to the north). Here, the frescoes are small, adapted to the dimensions of the building (6.35 x 2.95 m), and in poorer condition, due to a hole in the roof that has long remained unrepaired. However, above the door, among the Passion scenes dominated by the Crucifixion, are the portraits of two donor couples, Ioannis and Irini Crommidos and Georgios and Eleni Pelekanos, Hellenized noblemen from Louvaras. Near the iconostasis, half of the portrait of Saint Mammès remains, depicted "in Cypriot style", riding a lion. The apse retains its large fresco of the Virgin of the Blachernes (miraculous apparition in Constantinople). On the lower parts of the walls, the saints' portraits are the best preserved. Among them, note these three saints side by side. They are the daughters of Saint Sophia, who died as martyrs with their mother in Rome around 137: Pistis, Elipis and Agapi. They embody Faith, Hope and Charity respectively.