iolanda andrade: Cyprus - My 7 day circuit across the country - Day 6 morning - West Cyprus - Pafos - Agios Neofytos Monastery ensemble; church, hermitage cells and Museum

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We headed towards the 12th century founded St. Neofytos Monastery so as to visit its Church, the hermitage cave and the Museum which are part of an ensemble I personally found to be very interesting. With the exception of the Monastery Church where we managed to take some inner photos, no others were allowed, which was a pity, because the most impressive frescoes and religious artefacts were precisely to be seen at the enkleistra of three cave cells and the Museum itself.

Being a hermit and an ascetic, author of philosophical treatises and hymns the Saint is said to have dug three cells in the limestone rock with his bare hands and later painted the amazingly beautiful mural frescoes that still cover its walls depicting the last days of the life of Christ.

It is impossible to describe the feeling as we walked into the cells especially the first two where most of the frescoes were painted. The whole atmosphere was pungeant and despite the exiguous space he lived in I can understand his predisposition to write in such a monastic type of environment.

I could't help buying a book on icons to later "explore" once I realised that from now onwards the chances of photographing would be scarce and one of the major reasons that had led me to come to Cyprus had been the frescoes.