CHURCH METAMORFOSIS TOU SOTIROS

This ^16th-century Greek Orthodox church (Ιερός Ναός Μεταμορφώσεως του Σωτήρος/Ieros Naos Metamorfosis tou Sotiros) is one of ten painted churches on the Troodos listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior, it features frescoes from two distinct periods. It was built in the ^16th century, during the Venetian period, and a narthex was added in the early ^17th century, during the Ottoman era. The ensemble is typical of Troodos church architecture, with a slender pedimented wooden roof covered in tiles. The lintel of the western entrance is adorned with a fresco of Christ and the Virgin on a throne, surrounded by St. John the Baptist and St. John the Theologian. It bears the date 1612. But inside, the vast program that covers all the walls was completed a hundred years earlier, in the early ^16th century. It is one of the most complete series of the post-Byzantine period in Cyprus: the sanctuary is adorned with a cycle of the Eucharist, while in the nave a cycle of the life of Christ develops, with portraits of saints in the lower register. As in the Timios Stavros church in Pelendri, the classical Byzantine style incorporates Italian influences. The painted wooden panels of the iconostasis were probably made in the early ^18th century. The icons date from the same period and are the work of a Greek monk from Mount Athos, Matheos Koutloumousios.