Kykkos Monastery

Kykkos was founded at the end of the eleventh century and has been the richest monastery in Cyprus ever since, and it does not hide it: the courtyards and passages are covered floor to ceiling in modern gold-ground mosaic and fresco, made over recent decades and dazzling in a way older Byzantine work never is. Its treasure is an icon of the Virgin attributed by tradition to Saint Luke, so sacred that it has been kept covered in silver gilt for centuries and nobody, including the monks, looks at the painting itself. The museum holds manuscripts, vestments and Byzantine silver of real quality. The setting, at over a thousand metres in pine forest, is part of the appeal, and the road up through the Troodos villages is one of the best drives on the island.

History

The monastery was founded around the end of the 11th century under the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, at 1,318 metres on the Troodos, and it has burned so many times that nothing of the first buildings survives. Its founding story, recorded by the Ukrainian pilgrim Vasil Grigorovich-Barsky who visited in 1735, tells of a hermit, Esaias, who lived in a cave on the mountain. The Byzantine governor Manuel Boutoumites, lost while hunting, mistreated him and then fell ill; cured after repenting, he was asked by the hermit to bring to Cyprus the icon of the Virgin said to have been painted by Saint Luke, then kept in the imperial palace in Constantinople. When the emperor's daughter fell ill with the same sickness, the emperor agreed to send it; he had a copy made to keep, but the Virgin appeared to him in a dream, and the original icon was carried to Cyprus, the trees bowing, the story says, as it passed up into the mountains (Wikipedia, Kykkos Monastery).

The main sights

• The mosaic courtyards - modern gold-ground mosaic covering every surface.
• The covered icon - the Virgin attributed to Saint Luke, permanently veiled.
• The museum - Byzantine silver, manuscripts and vestments.
• The mountain drive - the road up through the Troodos pine forest and villages.

When to go

April to October is mildest, though the mountains are cooler than the coast all year and can have snow in winter. It is busiest in the middle of the day when coaches arrive from the resorts; early or late is calmer. Dress modestly, with shoulders and knees covered.

Things to know

The decoration is almost entirely modern and overwhelmingly opulent, which strikes some visitors as magnificent and others as gaudy compared with the austere painted churches lower down the same mountains. It is a working monastery with dress rules enforced at the door. The road up is winding and slow, and coach parties dominate midday.

Nearby

The painted churches of the Troodos are scattered through the surrounding villages; Pedoulas and Kalopanayiotis are close.

Key facts