Panagia Podithou, Italo-Byzantine art at Galata

Panagia Podithou came late to the story of the painted churches, at the start of the 16th century, and you can tell. Its paintings have an Italian air you don’t expect in a mountain church. What follows mixes UNESCO’s data, the description the mountains’ development company gives and my own way of seeing it.

A monastery church

The church stands north of Galata, in the Solea valley. According to its own inscription it was built in 1502, and it was a monastery church. It’s one of the ten painted churches of Troodos that UNESCO inscribed in 1985, all with the steep wooden roof that sets them apart.

Inside

The highlight is the iconostasis, of carved and gilded wood, surrounded by Italo-Byzantine murals. The company notes that the apostles Peter and Paul are painted on the north wall, with biblical scenes on the rest. The mural that catches the eye is the donors’, an elderly man with his wife offering the Virgin a model of the church. That custom of portraying whoever paid for the church recurs in other churches of the group, such as Archangelos Michael at Pedoulas, and it’s a detail I love about them.

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Galata, a village of churches

Podithou isn’t alone. Galata, at 620 metres and with 571 residents in 2021, has other painted churches within the village. Among them, the company picks out a chapel of the Virgin painted in 1514 and the church of Agios Sozomenos, from 1513, while the main church, Panagia Odigitria, only dates from 1930. I cover them all, with the museum and the mill, on the Galata page.

One stop on the Solea route

The company groups Podithou with Asinou and Stegis, Solea’s other UNESCO churches, in a 138 kilometre route through Nikitari, Galata and Kakopetria. The furthest out is Panagia Asinou, near Nikitari, with frescoes going back to the 12th century. If you want to see all three in one day, Podithou sits in the middle and needs the smallest detour.

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How I’d see it

Entry costs nothing, according to UNESCO, and the church is still used for worship. Its opening hours aren’t published by an official source, so I’d visit early, without cutting it fine. Bear in mind people still worship there, so cover up a little and keep your voice down. I’d pair it with Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis, a much older church a few kilometres away, because comparing them is the best art history lesson you can get in one valley. To round off the day, Galata’s folk art museum and the Kyrillos watermill, which still grinds wheat, show the rural life of the area. The rest of the valley is in the Solea valley.

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