Agia Ekaterini (Kritou Terra)
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The Agia Ekaterini ( St. Catherine ) is a former Orthodox monastery church near the village of Kritou Terra ( Paphos district ) on Cyprus . The church building is owned by the Catherine's Monastery on Sinai and does not belong to the Cypriot Orthodox Church . Thus the Agia Ekaterini is subordinate to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem .
description
The Agia Ekaterini was built in the 15th century for a metochi of the Katharinenkloster and shows the typical mixture of Byzantine architecture with influences of Frankish Gothic architecture under the Crusader rule of the House of Lusignan in Cyprus.
The Agia Ekaterini is a three-aisled church with a wide central nave and narrow aisles. All aisles show the same length and close in the east with semicircular apses. A dome rises above the central nave. The nave is vaulted by a pointed arch barrel, and the arcades open to the side aisles in Gothic pointed arches. The narthex of three bays, each of which is vaulted by a dome, is architecturally unusual. The narthex yokes also open up in Gothic pointed arch arcades.
Inside and in the narthex only small remains of a once rich painting have survived. The monastery was no longer inhabited by monks before 1900, but until 1900 the monastery sent monks to Cyprus once a year in order to have the farmers who cultivated the rich lands of the monastery pay the rent. After that, the Katharinenkloster sold the land and only owns the church building. Agia Ekaterini was badly damaged during an earthquake in 1952, but the damage was repaired.
literature
- Gwynneth de Parthog: Byzantine and Medieval Cyprus. A Guide to the Monuments . London 1995, pp. 81-83.
Web links
Coordinates: 34 ° 58 '5.6 " N , 32 ° 26" 44.4 " E