Things to do in Kalopanayiotis
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Agios Ionnis Lambadistis Monastery
The Unesco-listed Agios Ionnis Lambadistis Monastery is signposted from the long main street of Kalopanayiotis and is reached by following a road downwards and then upwards again at the opposite side of the valley. Built in the traditional Troödos style with a large barnlike roof, it is actually three churches in one, built side-on to one another over 400 years from the 11th century. The original Orthodox church has a double nave, to which has been added a narthex and a Latin chapel.
This composite church is one of the better preserved of the Troödos churches and has the most intricate and colourful frescoes. The best are the 13th-century works in the main domed Orthodox…
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icon museum
As part of the Agios Ionnis Lambadistis Monastery, there is also an icon museum. The main display is the collection of 15 icons, discovered in 1998, that date from the 16th century. As the informative and enthusiastic guide will tell you, the icons stood underground for many years, buried when the Orthodox priests ran from the invading Ottomans. Some of these icons went on tour in London in 2001.
The iconostasis (the screen holding the icons) has its top covered in carvings of the ferns that grow in abundance by the river in Kalopanayiotis, showing its local origins.
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