Timios Stavros at Pelendri, the Holy Cross of Pitsilia

Timios Stavros at Pelendri has one detail that makes it stand out, it’s the only painted church of the UNESCO property outside Nicosia district. Its story can also be read in the layers of its building. I rely on UNESCO and on ANETroodos, which describes it in detail.

A church built twice

The church lies south of Pelendri, a Pitsilia village at 800 metres with 1,026 residents in 2021. The sources mention it from the late 12th century, and the company explains that it probably started out as a cemetery church. That original was destroyed, and only the apse survived, built into a new church raised between the 13th and 14th centuries.

So two periods sit side by side. The apse keeps murals with inscriptions dating them to 1172, and the rest of the church was enriched with 14th-century Byzantine art. On another of its pages the company speaks of frescoes from 1178, a discrepancy worth bearing in mind.

Limassol’s only one

UNESCO notes in its entry that, of the ten painted churches of Troodos, only one, Timios Stavros at Pelendri, lies in Limassol district, while the other nine are in Nicosia district. It is therefore the property’s representative on the Limassol side.

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Opening hours

The company publishes two sets of hours without saying which season each covers. One, Monday to Friday, opens at 10:00, closes at 13:00 and reopens from 15:00 to 17:00, and the other, also weekdays, keeps the hours 10:00-12:00 and 14:00-16:00. It gives no hours for Saturday or Sunday. Entry is free, as across the property.

Pelendri, the village

Pelendri is ringed by steep mountains and deep valleys and keeps many houses built of local gabbro, with wooden doors and flowery yards. The company also mentions the church of Panagia Katholiki, with 16th-century icons, and those of Ioannis Lambadistis and Archangel Michael, within sight of each other’s bell towers. Wine matters here, with two wineries inside the designation of origin.

On top of a nearby mountain stands the monument to the EOKA fighters who fought between 1955 and 1959, designed by the architect Christo Fereo according to the company, with 108 steps, as many as the fallen, along a 650 metre path, and a chapel of Panagia Eleftherotissa.

If you are short on time, see the best tours in Timios Stavros, Pelendri and pick one that fits your day.

Where it fits on a route

I’d see it on a weekday, on the way between the Limassol coast and the rest of Pitsilia, and sleep in Agros, which is close. Combined with Panagia tou Araka and the Transfiguration church at Palaichori, it completes the area’s four churches. I’d also pair it with Louvaras, further south, or with Kyperounta, about five kilometres north as the crow flies.

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