Paphos Life

On the road from Tremithousa to the Agios Neofitos monastery, there is a large construction which looks rather like a church and also some sort of a shrine on the side of the road.

Can anyone shed any light on what's happening there please?

Well, they are building a church.

Cypriots like building churches. If you take the scenic route from Gravity Road down to Chrysochou, you will see an old monastery. It has a working church still intact. However, that wasn't enough for the local population, which mainly consists of goats. They have erected another chapel on the opposite side of the track to the existing monastery and church.

Saint Ephraim church. An article from April here https://talanews.blogspot.com/2021/04/ ... under.html

Jeanne

One of the reasons they build the churches is to stop local councils from taking the land under compulsory purchases (or the Cypriot equivalent).

mouse wrote: ↑Wed Oct 27, 2021 8:50 pm Dominic do I detect a little cynicism ! I do agree though , I would have thought there were plenty of churches but I am not an expert on such matters.

Not at all. They can build as many as they want. I was just making an observation. The churches don't have the same sort of status that they do in the UK. By this I mean that, whereas in the UK, each church will have a congregation and set weekly masses etc, a lot of the churches in Cyprus will get used far less frequently for "official" business. Often they will have a mass on a particular Saint's Day, and be dormant for the rest of the year. That doesn't mean they aren't used though. Just about every time I've photographed a remote church I've met people turning up just to say a few prayers or light a candle. And even if they don't, there will still be a recently lit candle burning.

Would be interesting to know who pays for the construction of churches such as this one? Do they need any form of planning permission?

Dee

Kili01 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 28, 2021 10:31 am Would be interesting to know who pays for the construction of churches such as this one? Do they need any form of planning permission?

Dee

Usually paid for by the Church of Cyprus and by donations from locals, as for your question,
Do they need any form of planning permission,
I'm sure you already know the answer, but some people just cant resist a troll question.

There are three new churches within the Monastery’s estate.
The church of St. Efraim [under construction], already mentioned, on the Monastery approach road.
There is another church nearing completion on Melissovounos above and east of the Monastery, which I ran a thread on a few years ago. It is built on a site of maximum elevation and view and used to be only a tumble-down ruin with a votive light.
There is a third church just completed at the top of the ravine which descends steeply from Koili to Agios Neophytos. At that site, my hunting dog found a small shrine in a rockface in a mass of tangled undergrowth about ten years ago, and enquiries at the Monastery revealed that St Anthony was remembered at that place. The Monastery has since cleared and restored access, by building not only a church to St. Anthony, but a magnificent set of steps in limestone right from the back of the Monastery car park right up to the newly built traditional style church. If you are not a little out of breath by the time you get to the church, you’re on the wrong forum!

Jon [wrong side of seventy!]