Why this ride
A 230 km round trip from Nicosia - roughly 4 h 42 in the saddle. The stops in between: Church of Stavros, Church of Ayia Sotira, Painted Churches in the Troodos Region and Church of Panayia.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Nicosia day out · Church of Panayia
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 230 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 42
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Nicosia
Nicosia is the last divided capital in Europe, and you feel it as soon as you reach the old city. A great ring of Venetian walls, built in the 1560s in the shape of a star with eleven bastions, encloses the centre, and across the middle runs the Green Line, the buffer zone created after the Turkish invasion of 1974. Barbed wire, sandbags and shuttered buildings mark the line in places, and a few crossing points allow pedestrians to pass between the two halves of the city, which is a strangely routine business, with passport checks and a walk down a pedestrian street.
Read the complete Nicosia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Nicosia is where the day begins. Next is Church of Stavros.
2. Church of Stavros
High in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus, in a quiet valley below the village of Platanistasa, stands a small church with a steep, pitched timber roof that comes almost to the ground, making it look more like a barn than a place of worship. This is Stavros tou Agiasmati, the Church of the Holy Cross, and inside it holds some of the finest late Byzantine frescoes on the island, painted in 1494 by Philip Goul, an artist whose name is recorded in a dedicatory inscription. The scenes from the life of Christ and the legend of the True Cross, rich in colour and detail, cover every wall. The church is one of ten painted churches in the Troodos region listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Church of Stavros write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Church of Stavros comes up about 52 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of Ayia Sotira.
3. Church of Ayia Sotira
This point lies in the northern foothills of the Troodos range, in a landscape of dry stone terraces, carob and olive trees, and villages that tilt down towards the Nicosia plain. What I can say is that the villages around it, Peléndri and Kyperoúnta among them, belong to one of the richest church regions in the eastern Mediterranean. The Troodos painted churches, ten of them on the UNESCO list, are small, steep-roofed stone buildings that hide Byzantine frescoes inside, and one of them, the Timios Stavros, stands at Peléndri.
Read the complete Church of Ayia Sotira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of Ayia Sotira. Next is Painted Churches in the Troodos Region.
4. Painted Churches in the Troodos Region
From the outside they look like barns: low stone buildings with steep pitched roofs of flat tiles, sometimes covered by a second wooden roof to keep off the snow. Inside, every surface glows with Byzantine and post-Byzantine frescoes. The painted churches of the Troodos mountains in Cyprus, nine of them inscribed in 1985 and a tenth added in 2001, form one of the richest collections of Byzantine painting anywhere.
Read the complete Painted Churches in the Troodos Region write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Painted Churches in the Troodos Region, about halfway. Next is Church of Panayia.
5. Church of Panayia
Cyprus has a church for every season, and the finest are hidden in the folds of the Troodos mountains. These small, plain stone chapels, with steep timber roofs that stretch over the older walls like a wide-brimmed hat to shed the winter snow, hide inside a world of colour: Byzantine frescoes, painted from the eleventh century to the sixteenth, of saints with huge dark eyes, scenes from the Gospels and the Virgin enthroned. A group of these painted churches in the Troodos region was listed as a World Heritage property in 1985. The Panayia, the Virgin, is the dedication of many of them, and the stop on this ride is among the foothills on the northern side of the range.
Read the complete Church of Panayia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Church of Panayia sits at 87 km, about halfway. Next is back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region.
6. back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Painted Churches in the Troodos Region write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region comes up about 160 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Church of Ayia Sotira.
7. back through Church of Ayia Sotira
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Ayia Sotira write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 161 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Church of Ayia Sotira. Next is back through Church of Stavros.
8. back through Church of Stavros
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Stavros write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Church of Stavros, late in the day. Next is Nicosia.
9. Nicosia
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Nicosia write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 230 km.
Leg by leg
Nicosia to Church of Stavros
Nicosia → Church of Stavros is 52 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Stavros to Church of Ayia Sotira
Church of Stavros → Church of Ayia Sotira is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Painted Churches in the Troodos Region to Church of Panayia
Painted Churches in the Troodos Region → Church of Panayia is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Panayia to back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region
Church of Panayia → back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Ayia Sotira to back through Church of Stavros
back through Church of Ayia Sotira → back through Church of Stavros is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Stavros to Nicosia
back through Church of Stavros → Nicosia is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.