Tala, the village of Agios Neophytos monastery

Tala is the hill village behind Paphos that almost everyone passes through on the way to Agios Neophytos monastery. It deserves a stop of its own, however brief, for its church museum and for the views it shares with the monastery above. I’ll cover the sights and the bus. For the surrounding hills, see Paphos district.

A village with a view

The Pafos tourism board puts Tala 11 km north of town and 280 m up, with views of the hills and the sea. The 2021 census gave it 3,100 residents. Its name is said to date from Frankish times, from the surname of the D’Avila family, a wealthy noble family of Cyprus that held the village as a fief.

It’s known above all for its religious heritage, and the tourism board highlights two sites, Agios Neophytos monastery, about 3 km north-east, and the church of Agia Aikaterini in the centre.

What to see in Tala

Agia Aikaterini is a single-room church with a dome. The first church went up in the 15th century and was remodelled in the 16th, when the arch and part of the walls were removed to add the dome, and it was decorated with paintings, including a Last Judgement on the west wall.

On 24 November 2014 the Archbishop of Cyprus opened it as a Byzantine museum, after five centuries serving the village and a few years of neglect. It holds mainly gifts from the faithful, icons from the 18th and 19th centuries, liturgical objects, a small epitaphios, gospels and vestments, including those of Archbishop Chrysostomos II. Highlights include two 19th-century Russian gospels and chalices given by a Russian merchant living in Tala, the antimension of Archbishop Silvestros, from the late 17th century, and 19th-century candelabra cast in Smyrna.

The Metropolis of Paphos says it opens on weekdays only, 9:00 to 13:00, with the phone numbers 99 968 537 and 99 389 380. The saint’s feast is on 25 November, so a visit around that date may coincide with services in the old church. The village also has a new church, of the Nativity, consecrated in December 2012.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Tala for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

The monastery next door

About 3 km north-east lies Agios Neophytos monastery, with the cave where the hermit lived shut away from 1159. The tourism board says it receives thousands of visitors a year, from Cyprus and all over Europe.

Getting there

From Karavela station, route 604 crosses Empa and the village itself before finishing at the monastery, with six trips a day on weekdays and four on Saturdays. For a wider choice of places to stay, see hotels in Paphos.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Tala on GetYourGuide.

If you would rather go at your own pace, see the car hire deals in Paphos: the earlier you book, the more cars are left to choose from.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Tala for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.