Chapel of the Archangel

Feast day: July 13

The chapel is mentioned in the Codex of Lefkara as a “monastery”, which came to the possession of the Ecclesiastical Committee of the Holy Cross in the middle of the 18th century, after a period of abandonment, during which it had been bought by a lay family. The chapel belongs to the type of the compressed cross-in-square with a dome and dates to the last decades of the 12th century. It is 11.50m long, excluding the projecting arch to the east, and 5.85m wide. The narthex to the west was remodelled (doors-roof) recently. Original “byzantine” ceramic tiles are preserved from the original phase.

The chapel was identified with the church of the Archangel that saint Neophytos the Recluse mentions in his enkomion of Archangel Michael, indicating a date around 1183/4. It should also be identified with the katholikon (the main church of a moanstery in Greek) of the Asomatoi Monastery, where in 1307 took place the election of his abbot Olvianos as Bishop of Amathus-Lefkara. Olvianos donated to the church of the Holy Cross in Lefkara a cross with silver cover and narrative scenes. This bespeaks that both the monastery and the church of the Holy Cross existed before the end of the 13th century, since from 1260 onwards they were the seat of the merged dioceses of Amathous-Neapolis, Kourion and Kition.

The interior wall decoration is preserved. Angelic orders and Prophets are preserved on the drum of the dome. In the conch of the apse was depicted Virgin Mary with the Child between angels, currently in a fragmentary state, and below the Communion of the Apostles and celebrating Hierarchs. In the drum of the south wing are still preserved: the Nativity of Christ, the Presentation of Christ and His Baptism. In the western arch: the Raising of Lazarus, part of the Anastasis (Harrowing of Hell  in Greek); and the Ascension in the eastern arch. In the lower zones, above the south door, is depicted the Holy Mandylion of Christ; and on both sides of the iconostasis there is a Deisis; the figure of Christ on the west face of the south-east pier; saint John the Baptist on the drum of the south apse. Virgin Mary supplicant to the corresponding pier of the north side, has not survived. The chapel is a listed monument (Table B). Its feast day is on the 13th of July.