Agia Paraskevi: A Byzantine Orthodox Church in Cyprus
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Cyprus
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Byzantine, Crusader, Kingdom of Cyprus
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page14 sections
History
Agia Paraskevi is an active Byzantine Orthodox church in Geroskipou, Cyprus, near Paphos, initially constructed in the late eighth or early ninth century. Dates proposed for its foundation or completion fall around 833–844, while another dating places completion no later than 843. The church belongs to the Paphos Metropolis of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and developed through several changes in dedication, structure, and decoration.
Early Byzantine foundations
The church was built over an earlier structure, represented by capitals and fragments of columns preserved in the churchyard. This predecessor may have been an ancient sanctuary associated with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess linked especially with love and fertility, or an early Christian basilica. The connection with Aphrodite remains unconfirmed, although the meaning of Geroskipou, “holy garden,” helped sustain the tradition that the area had an earlier sacred association.
Agia Paraskevi was first dedicated to the Holy Cross. Its principal dedication later changed to Saints Barnabas and Hilarion, probably when the main part of the present church was erected in the eleventh century. Barnabas was an early Christian apostle and missionary, while Hilarion was an early Christian ascetic associated with the monastic tradition. The church was rededicated to Saint Paraskevi in the mid-nineteenth century. Saint Paraskevi was an early Christian martyr especially venerated in Eastern Christianity.
Later changes and traditions
The western wall was demolished during a nineteenth-century enlargement. A western porch, or entrance hall, and a bell tower were added during that period, and the western section, described as a women’s gallery, was enlarged in 1931. The bell tower at the southeastern corner bears the date 1886.
A local tradition connects the church with the double-sided icon of the Virgin Gerokipiotissa. During the mid-nineteenth century, villagers reportedly followed an unexplained light that repeatedly appeared among dense vegetation. They were said to have found a burning lamp before discovering the late-fifteenth-century icon, which was subsequently placed in Agia Paraskevi.
A sacred underground spring near the church was traditionally believed to cure eye diseases and was known as the holy water of Saint Paraskevi. Industrial discharges polluted the stream during the 1950s, after which the entrance to the cave was sealed. Restoration by the Department of Antiquities in 1974–1977 uncovered earlier wall paintings, including tenth-century fragments and a twelfth-century Dormition of the Virgin beneath a fifteenth-century Crucifixion. The church was added to Cyprus’s tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage properties in 2004.
Remains
Agia Paraskevi survives as an oriented, three-aisled Byzantine basilica with exceptionally thick walls and barrel-vaulted aisles. Five domes create a cross-shaped arrangement, with three larger domes along the central aisle and two smaller domes over the northern and southern aisles. A small domed chapel is attached to the southeastern corner, while the nineteenth-century porch and bell tower extend the western and southeastern parts of the building.
Church layout and attached chapel
Five-domed basilica
The five-domed arrangement gives the church an unusual architectural form in Cyprus. A comparable design appears at the Church of Saints Barnabas and Hilarion in Peristerona, and the arrangement has also been associated as a possible model with the Church of Saint John in Ephesus and the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople. The central and side aisles remain organized beneath the domes, while the thick masonry and barrel vaults define the basilica’s substantial construction.
Southeastern chapel
A small square chapel with a dome stands beside the eastern end of the southern aisle. It has four apses, or rounded ends, concealed externally by the walls surrounding the chapel. Its original purpose remains uncertain. It may have been an early Christian martyrium, a shrine connected with a saint’s relics, or an early Christian baptistery used for baptism.
Western porch and bell tower
The western porch belongs to the nineteenth-century enlargement, when the original western wall was demolished. The western section was expanded in 1931 and is described as a women’s gallery. The bell tower dominates the southeastern corner and was built in 1886.
Frescoes and interior furnishings
Early painted decoration
The interior preserves frescoes from the eighth–ninth, tenth, twelfth, and fifteenth centuries, with different degrees of survival. The earliest decoration consists of non-figural crosses and ornamental motifs associated with Byzantine Iconoclasm, a period when the use of religious images was contested and sometimes officially suppressed. A small reddish-brown monochrome cross is painted directly onto the stone of the southern wall in the northern aisle. A larger, partly preserved cross appears in the eastern dome above the altar, surrounded by geometric and stylized plant ornament.
Central and western domes
The central dome contains the Virgin in the orans posture, shown standing with raised arms in prayer. Prophets holding scrolls decorate the drum, their texts referring to prophecies concerning the Virgin, while the pendentives contain the Evangelists. The western dome preserves a severely damaged late-fifteenth-century image of Christ Pantokrator, the traditional image of Christ as the Almighty. Its pendentives show Moses, the sacrifice of Isaac, and Paul dictating an epistle to Luke. The decoration of the southwestern pendentive has been lost.
Scenes along the aisles
The lunettes of the central aisle contain scenes from the Twelve Great Feasts of the Christian liturgical year and episodes from the Passion of Christ. A large Crucifixion occupies the northern wall beneath the central dome. Weapons, armor, and clothing in some scenes reflect the period of the Lusignan kingdom, the medieval Latin-ruled kingdom established under the Lusignan dynasty in Cyprus.
The southern aisle contains frescoes of Saints Spyridon and Eleutherios within an arched opening. Its southern wall includes the Nativity of the Virgin, Saint George, the Crucifixion, and the prophet Moses holding a scroll. The southern lunette shows the Raising of Lazarus, Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem, the Nativity of the Virgin, and the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, with the prophet Ezekiel beside it.
Opposite the southern entrance are scenes of the Last Supper, Christ washing the Apostles’ feet, and Judas’s betrayal. These paintings belong to the period of Lusignan rule. The church’s decoration was completed in the fifteenth century, leaving a sequence of painted layers that extends across several centuries.
Iconostasis and sacred image
The iconostasis, the icon-bearing screen separating the sanctuary from the main body of an Orthodox church, dates from the sixteenth century. In the northern aisle it contains the double-sided late-fifteenth-century icon of the Virgin Gerokipiotissa. One side presents the Virgin and Child in the Hodegetria type, in which the Virgin indicates or presents Christ, while the reverse shows the Crucifixion.
Underground spring
The underground cave and its stream lie near the church’s southwestern wall. The cave entrance is sealed, and twentieth-century pollution made the stream inaccessible. Its former religious importance survives through the tradition that the water of Saint Paraskevi possessed healing powers, particularly for eye diseases.
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