The Church of Saints Kerykos and Ioulitta

Published 19th of September, 2018

It's time for another guest blog from Max. He's taken a break from enlightening us about crystals and rock formations in the Paphos area, and has gone in search of some interesting church frescoes in Letymbou.

Letymbou Church

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Since many years I am fascinated how nice and balanced the little church of St. Kerykos and Ioulitta looks from outside, situated at the north east corner of the village Letymbou. I was wondering how the church will look inside and decided to get the key from the Priest of the village in order to do some photos if it is worth.

First thing I want to show is how nice to church looks from outside whatever direction you look at.

Side Entrance

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View From Above

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And Letymbou itself...

Main Entrance

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I was overwhelmed from the moment I opened the entrance door and have spent more than half an hour inside, photographing the fantastic frescoes in detail.

This church belongs to the type of the inscribed cross with dome of a simple cross-domed church, introduced to Cyprus in the 10th century if not earlier from Asia Minor. The interior of the church is quite dark, similar to other churches in Cyprus of this type. Only 5 small windows penetrate the dome and Apse. An interesting feature of this church is that the dome is virtually based on walls instead of pillars. A rather archaic element of the church is it's semi-circular construction in the apse which reminds me of early Byzantine period.

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