Church of Panayia and Church of Timios Stavros

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is Ayios Ionannis.

2. 2. Ayios Ionannis

   Ayios Ionannis here means the monastery of Saint John Lambadistis, at Kalopanagiotis, a village in the Marathasa valley on the northern side of the Troodos mountains. It is a strange and lovely building, three churches joined together under one big wooden roof, each added in a different century, so that stepping from one to the next is like walking through the history of Cypriot painting. Frescoes cover nearly every wall, from the Byzantine saints of the twelfth century to the more elaborate cycles of the fifteenth, in colours that glow in the dim light. It is one of the painted churches of the Troodos, listed by UNESCO in 1985.

   Read the complete Ayios Ionannis write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Ayios Ionannis comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of Timios Stavros.

3. 3. Church of Timios Stavros

   The painted churches of the Troodos mountains look plain from outside. Squat stone boxes with steep timber roofs, built that way to shed the snow, they hide inside some of the finest Byzantine frescoes in the Mediterranean, and nine of them were listed by UNESCO in 1985, with a tenth added later. The Church of Timios Stavros, the Holy Cross, at Pelendri, is one of the group, with frescoes from the fourteenth century that show scenes of the life of Christ, in the dark blues and ochres of the period, and an interior lit by only a little daylight so that the figures seem to glow.

   Read the complete Church of Timios Stavros write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 72 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of Timios Stavros. Next is back through Ayios Ionannis.

4. 4. back through Ayios Ionannis

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Ayios Ionannis write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Ayios Ionannis, late in the day. Next is Church of Panayia.

5. 5. Church of Panayia

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   Back at Church of Panayia. That is the ride.