Painted Churches in the Troödos Region

In the Troödos region, you’ll find historic, medieval Painted Churches. Exploring these requires a car or multi-day hikes and luck to get the keys. We limited our exploration to Ayios Nikolaos tis Steyis near Kakopetria, the only church accessible by public transport with official opening hours.

The church, built with local resources, is simple and sturdy on the outside, protecting it against the elements. It looks more like a farmhouse than a church or chapel. Inside, though, it’s an opulently painted Byzantine church.

Walking up from Kakopetria offered us a scenic view of the surrounding landscape. The church’s location, near a river flowing down the mountains, provides a meditative calm, akin to a Cistercian abbey. The mountainous location should have also helped in protecting these treasures from coastal raids.

We initially planned to visit Panayia Podhithou in the next village. However, due to extraordinarily high temperatures for March (30°), the additional 5km walk, and uncertainty about entry, we opted for a coffee in Kakopetria Old Town instead. We caught a glimpse of Panayia Podhithou from the bus when we left for Nikosia. An outside visit would have added to the experience as the connection to farmhouses is even more visible in Panayia Podhithou with its thatched roof.

Having visited only one church, it’s difficult to assess the site’s overall potential. Based on Riccardo’s statement that Ayios Nikolaos tis Steyis is one of the better ones, these churches seem less impressive compared to those in Romania (Churches …

The old stone houses of Kalopanagiotis crumbled down the hillside. Below, the bridge was out. I had to leave the car and gingerly inch across the span, trying not to focus on the gorge below. The monastery on the other side was deserted except for two black-clad and bearded priests. The younger greeted me with an unexpected Australian accent and ushered me into the darkness of the katholikon. Due to the lack of lighting and the netting that shrouded the interior to catch any errant flakes of paint peeling from the damp stonework it was hard to make out any details of the saints and Biblical scenes that coated the walls.

That was in 2006.

Revisiting this Easter, I was amazed at the change. Kalopanagiotis was now a chi-chi mountain resort where golf buggies carted guests through its zig-zagging streets to the spa and a shiny glass elevator joined the upper and lower sections of town. Cars trundled across the bridge, bringing crowds of visitors to the Agios Ioannis Lampadistis Monastery. There was even a conference of heritage professionals taking place in a meeting room above the monks’ cells. The interior of the monastery church was now beautifully restored and well-lit, enabling me to take in the details of the frescoes. From the entrance into the church there are essentially three naves running left to right. The first, the church of Agios Herakleidos dates from the 11th-12th centuries, the middle from 13th-14th century, and the furthest, the …

The 10 painted churches located up on the mountains in the Troödos Region of Cyprus are an interesting collection of richly decorated Byzantine churches, some of which date back to the 11th century, still in use (somehow) today.

Something that I realized after visiting a few of the churches in August 2021 is that, by visiting only one or two of them, one would not really grasp the full meaning of this inscription. In fact, some of the churches are isolated, small and, honestly, quite unimpressive on their own. However, as we visited more and more, the prospective drastically changed for me and I started to appreciate the uniqueness of this serial site and the thread that connects all these monuments.

A particular, although at times frustrating, features of some of the churches is that they are normally closed and you have to find the keykeeper in order to get the church open for you to visit. And this proved to be not always an easy task. The website of the Department of Antiquities (Link to the website) provides some information on the opening times and how to reach the keykeeper, but unfortunately it is not always accurate and the task can turn out to be slightly harder than imagined.

Following is our itinerary with some tips:

Driving from the Sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepafos (also part of the Paphos WHS) and being based in Kakopetria, the easiest itinerary for us was to split …

When I entered Cyprus in mid-December 2020 with intention to stay for 3 months, there was not much of lockdown. Museums and archaeological sites were open, and I was able to visit Choirokoitia and Paphos WHSs within my first 2 days in the country without any problems. Staying in the Paphos District for 3 months, I thought I would visit the Painted Churches in the Troodos Region WHS sometimes in January or February. I was not following the local news and just going about my own business. Then on January 10 I was told by my landlord that a strict lockdown was to commence on the next day. 

Suddenly, we had to stay inside our residences with allowance of only two 3-hour slots a day outside and were also not allowed to move from one District of the country to another. The Troodos Region was basically in the Nicosia District. The feeling that I might not even be able to visit the Troodos WHS before I leave Cyprus in mid-March persisted for a long time, until I was caught by a few police officers on street when I was wandering around at midnight despite the 9 pm curfew. The officers then let me go. I realized at that moment that after all the Cypriots in the southern half of the island were ethnically Greek and loose. 

So I decided to take it easy. As a non-resident of the country, I had a right to go to the airport …

Preparing for our trip to Cyprus, we noticed that very little practical information (opening hours, ...) can be found about the painted churches, so maybe the below is useful for future visitors. Note that we visited all 10 churches mid March, so potentially the opening hours may be different in other months/seasons.

As mentioned in previous reviews, it's best to use GPS coordinates to find the churches - they are indicated below. Unlike Clyde, we never felt we needed a 4x4 vehicle but the difference might be that we used the 'avoid unpaved roads' option on our GPS.

We explored the Troodos mountains for 2 days. Visiting all 10 churches in one day could maybe be possible since we departed from Nicosia and also visited other sites (Kykkos, Fikardou, ...), but this will probably be rushed.

We particularly liked the churches located outside of a village (e.g. the ones in Nikitari and Platanistasa), but they are all worth a visit.

1. Nikitari: 35°02'45.4"N 32°58'24.5"E, open when we visited it on a Monday at 10 AM.

2. Lagoudera: 34°57'55.7"N 33°00'25.1"E, open when we visited it on a Monday at 10.45 AM.

3. Platanistasa: 34°58'44.8"N 33°02'48.0"E, closed when we visited it on a Monday at 11.30 AM. Coming from Lagoudera, a sign at a T-junction (right to Platanistasa, left to the church) indicates that the key can be picked up in Platanistasa. We did not do this taking into account that this would take about 30-45 minutes (back and forth) and that …

I visited this WHS in February 2016. It is made up of a series of 10 or 12 painted churches high in the Troodos region of Cyprus. The official map indicator offered by UNESCO gives 12 GPS coordinates while the description only mentions 10. Since I had enough time I visited all the churches even though the 'latest' additions were closed for restoration. I'd recommend renting a car and most importantly a GPS navigator. I brought my GPS along with all the saved coordinates and still visiting some of the churches surely wasn't easy. If possible, I'd suggest to approach the Troodos region coming from the capital Nicosia instead of what I did, i.e. crossing inland from Limassol. The route is much more scenic on the latter option, however you'd be better off on a 4x4 vehicle to be on the safe side as you'd be able to venture down the several tractor trails or minor roads to get to all the churches in a sort of loop. I managed with a non-4x4 compact vehicle but there were several moments when I thanked my lucky stars that I managed to do this without damaging the car or worse getting hurt. I have to say that I really enjoy these kind of WHS (a series of less-known sites). Ihe Troodos region reminded me of the Val de Boi Churches in Catalunya. In my opinion the interior of the painted churches of Troodos is their definite highlight and why they have OUV, …

Over two days I managed to visit all ten of the listed painted churches. This involved driving through magnificent autumn scenery, along steep winding roads, wel;l worth the effort. Of the 10 churches:

1 was closed for restoration (Pelendria)

2 were unrestored but open to visitors (Moutouilas and Kakopetria)

2 were restored but closed (Palaichori and Platanistasa)

5 were restored and open to visitors (Galata, Pedoulas, Lagoudera, Nikitari and St John's Monastery).

Of the ten churches only Nikiteri and Lagoudera rated 'spectacular' frescoes, while others were damaged or patchy.

Of all the Troodos churches, I've only been to the only one easily accessible by public transport from Nikosia - the one in Galata. We took the effort to go there from Famagusta in Northern Cyprus and were very much disappointed. The paintings were nice but nothing out of the ordinary. I have seen much more beautiful ones even in Nicosia. Only the paintings in the apsis survived (and one other fragment) which was also a bad surprise as I imagined them to cover the entire church (again like in Nicosia). The church was badly lit (in order to preserve the frescoes) and the apsis which is the only interesting section of the church was not accessible to anyone but the local priest. So even in the dusky inner room of the church we still had to admire the paintings through a wall! A (partial) compensation for this unrewarding visit was the nearby charming village of Kakopetria with its cubbled streets. I sure hope the rest of the Troodos churches are better!

I visited the Metamorphosis Church (one of the inscribed churches) in the mountains. The most interesting experience for me was knocking on a few doors near the church to finally get the "keeper of the key" to open the church for us. And the beautiful frescos in the church was worth all the effort. No exception as well to the beautiful location the church was situated and the friendly people we met on the way up the mountains. Definitely worth a visit!

Far away, deep in the heart of Cyprus, a number of very old and special churches can be found. They are like hidden treasures, and also in the age of paved roads and cars, it takes some stamina to visit them.

Of the 9 enlisted churches, I visited 3: Panagia tou Asinou, Panagia tou Araka and Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis. Although they won their inclusion in the list mainly because of their interiors, I fell for their simple outside beauty. Often "just" a robust stone building, but in the best natural settings you can think of.