Cyprus - My 7 day circuit across the country - Day 6 morning - West Cyprus - Pafos - Agios Neofytos Monastery ensemble; church, hermitage cells and Museum - The 10th of November 2016

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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. 

 

 

Note: The frescoe reproductions have been downloaded from the internet.







 

Cyprus - My 7 day circuit across the country - Day 5 evening and Day 6 early morning - West Cyprus - Pafos - Early Christian Chrysopolitissa Basilica by night; St. Paul's pillar; Getting lodged -The 9th of November 2016

 

We unknowingly opted to anticipate a visit we had the following morning so as no to lose much time prior to heading towards Troodos, though I feel sorry not to have seen the 12th century stone church Chrysopolitissa church built on the ruins of an earlier seven-aisled Christian Byzantine Basilica once it was dark and the floor mosaics could hardly be seen.

 

 

Amongst the several archaeological digged single columns, one of them was dubbed "St. Paul's pillar", because once the apostle came to Cyprus to preach Christianity he was capured and sentenced to being flogged by the Roman governor Sergius Paulus.

 

 

 

We were then lodged at a huge hotel by the sea. The moment I walked into my bedroom with a double bed and two singles and an outside veranda that ran along the size of the room I wondered if I'd be able to sleep in such a huge space at my own disposal ... , but I did ... it had been a long day and I felt most of us were tired (I certainly was).