Painted Churches in the Troodos Region and Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village starting at Kyperoúnta

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 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 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village.

3. 3. Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village

   According to the Greeks, Aphrodite rose from the sea foam off the coast of Cyprus, and the place where she came ashore was near Paphos. The rock of Petra tou Romiou, a sea stack a few kilometres east of Kouklia, is the traditional spot, and the sanctuary on the hill above, at Palaepaphos, was one of the most important shrines of the ancient world. People came on pilgrimage from across the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to late antiquity, and the cult went back to a Near Eastern fertility goddess long before the Greeks arrived, with the goddess worshipped in the form of a cone-shaped black stone.

   Read the complete Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 116 km into the recorded legs you reach Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village. 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 Painted Churches in the Troodos Region.

5. 5. 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 at Painted Churches in the Troodos Region. That is the ride.