Throni and the tomb of Makarios, above Kykkos Monastery

Makarios III’s tomb is in a place that surprises. It isn’t in the capital or his home village but on a summit in the Troodos, beside the monastery where he grew up. Here’s what you’ll find at Throni and how to visit, based on what Kykkos Monastery publishes.

A holy summit before Makarios

Throni tis Panagias, the throne of the Virgin, is a rugged summit of about 1,450 metres north-west of Kykkos Monastery. Its name comes from an old custom. In years of drought the monks carried the Kykkos icon of the Virgin in procession up a path to the top, set it on a wooden throne and prayed for rain. In Venetian times, between 1489 and 1571, the icon even became known as the Virgin of the Rain. The monastery says the faithful still climb to the summit today.

In 1977 the old building was pulled down and a new concrete shrine went up, mixing Byzantine and modern features. The monastery also reported that in 2011 an octagonal church by the architect Ioannis Kopsacheilis was being built on the top.

The archbishop’s tomb

Makarios III was Archbishop of Cyprus from 1950 to 1977 and the Republic’s first president. He chose this spot for his burial himself. The tomb, a few metres below the summit on its north side, is a half-underground vaulted building designed in 1977 by the architect Andreas Filippou, who also designed the new shrine. It’s a restrained structure, quite unlike the grand mausoleums you might expect for a head of state.

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The statue and the walk

A little lower, on a square laid out for it, stands the large statue of Makarios by the sculptor Nikos Kotziamanis, there since 2008. It used to stand in the grounds of the archbishopric in Nicosia, by the Archbishop’s Palace. The Metropolitan of Kykkos later linked the shrine, tomb and statue with footpaths lined with mosaics, so the visit becomes a short walk.

Why here

Makarios’s bond with Kykkos goes back to childhood. He was born on 13 August 1913 at Panagia, in Paphos district, into a family of modest means, and in October 1926 he entered the monastery as a novice, and it later paid for his studies. The monastery is proud of that and of its role in the struggle of 1955 to 1959. For the full background to those years, see the history of Cyprus.

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Before you go

Throni is about 2 kilometres from Kykkos along a road opened in 1959. I haven’t found the tomb’s opening hours or visiting conditions from any official source, so I won’t take them for granted, and with a tight schedule I’d phone the monastery first. I’d pair it with Kykkos on the same morning, as part of a tour of the western Troodos Mountains.

Where the bus does not go, a car does: compare car hire in Limassol before you arrive rather than at the desk.

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