Description of the attraction
Panaya tou Araka church is located among green forests at the foot of the Troodos mountains near the village of Lagudera. It was built around the end of the 12th century. It is believed that the initiator of the creation of the temple was the rich Byzantine Lev Autenta.
Initially, it was a stone building with a cross-shaped roof and a dome, which is traditional for Orthodox churches. However, today, in order to protect the ancient building from precipitation and wind, it was covered with a kind of "sarcophagus" - it had a new tiled roof right on top of the old one, and wooden gratings were installed on all sides.
The Panaya tou Arak church is famous not only for its venerable age. The temple gained particular fame thanks to its unique frescoes, which were created back in 1192, but at the same time they have been very well preserved to this day.
All drawings are distinguished by a special softness of shapes and roundness of lines, as well as amazingly harmonious color combinations. The frescoes depict the Virgin Mary with the little Jesus in her arms, surrounded by archangels, scenes from the Bible, as well as various saints.
The inscription on one of the walls of the church says that the author of the frescoes is Hieromonk Fyodor, therefore it is believed that they were all executed by the famous Greek artist Theodor Apsevdis, who is also known as Fyodor Apsevd.
In addition, there are several more drawings in the church that date back to a later period (16th and 17th centuries) and depict Jesus Christ, John the Baptist and other important figures in the history of Christianity.
Basically, it is thanks to these frescoes that the Panaya tou Araka temple was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today this place is considered one of the most important cultural monuments of the Byzantine era.
