The Marathasa valley, cherry trees and painted churches

Of all the Troodos valleys, Marathasa best combines what most people come up the mountains for, painted churches, stone villages and nature. To go through it I combine the valley notes the Troodos Development Company publishes with the museum hours of the Nicosia Tourism Board and, for the churches, UNESCO, and I finish with how I’d plan it.

A valley of cherry trees

Marathasa covers the western part of the Troodos Mountains and follows the course of the Setrachos river. The development company presents it as home to some of the region’s most important churches and monasteries and links it with its cherry trees. The best-known villages are in Nicosia district, though higher up the valley connects with Prodromos and other hamlets in Limassol district.

The three UNESCO churches

This is the main reason to come. At Kalopanayiotis, the monastery of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis adds up structures spanning the 11th to the 18th centuries plus a Latin chapel of Italo-Byzantine painting. At Moutoullas, Panagia tou Moutoulla keeps an inscription dating it to 1280. And at the top of the valley, Archangelos Michael at Pedoulas was painted in 1474.

The company suggests a 148 kilometre route to see them. Watch the opening times, as each church works differently. At Pedoulas the church opens daily from 10:30 to 17:00, while at Moutoullas the key is kept at the café.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Kalopanayiotis before prices climb.

The villages

Pedoulas, at 1,100 metres, was a pioneer of tourism and cherry growing after the Second World War, and today has a Byzantine museum and a folk art museum. Moutoullas, at 800 metres, is the village of water, with sulphur springs and a drinking water that drew people from all over the island. Kalopanayiotis looks across the river at the monastery, joined to it by a 16th-century Venetian bridge.

There’s more. Oikos, at 650 metres, keeps a 12th-century church of Agios Nikolaos. Gerakies, at 925 metres, sits on the road up to Kykkos. And at Kampos, the company singles out the church of Agios Kyriakos, from 1881, as the island’s largest wooden-roofed church, plus a forestry museum.

Kykkos at the end of the road

From Kalopanayiotis a road climbs through Gerakies to Kykkos Monastery, the richest in Cyprus, with its museum and Makarios’s tomb on the nearby summit of Throni. It’s a climb I’d add to the churches day if you start early.

If you would rather have a local show you round, book a guided tour in Kalopanayiotis and choose by the reviews.

My plan for the valley

I’d stay in Kalopanayiotis, the mountain village with the most accommodation, or in Pedoulas. I’d start with Lampadistis first thing, carry on to Moutoullas mid-morning, have lunch in Pedoulas and see Archangelos Michael and the museums in the afternoon. I’d keep Kykkos for the next day. In cherry season, ask about the Pedoulas cherry festival, which the company mentions without a date. The other UNESCO churches are in the painted churches of Troodos.

A car frees you from timetables: search car hire in Limassol on DiscoverCars and compare companies.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Kalopanayiotis before prices climb.