Maintenance work complete at Karpasia’s Ayios Theodoros church

Maintenance work at the Ayios Theodoros church in the Karpas peninsula village of the same name has been completed, bicommunal Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage co-chairman Sotos Ktoris said.

Ktoris said the church dates back to the late 15th century, and that maintenance work was carried out by a group of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot conservationists, engineers, and architects.

The maintenance project was funded by the European Union and was implemented under the supervision of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The church is the latest to see its maintenance work be complete, with work at the Saint Charalambos church near the Famagusta district village of Akanthou having been completed just over a month ago.

According to Christian tradition, Saint Charalambos prayed before his execution that God grant that the place where his relics would repose would never suffer famine or disease.

Accordingly, the Akanthou villagers of the past believed that the saint would protect and cure animal diseases, especially those involving cattle.

Local tradition states that the church was built on the site where a farmer’s two daughters died of the plague while they were ploughing a field.

Legend says the plague then spread to the village of Akanthou and then to other Cypriot villages.

It is said that after the plague, the villagers built the church and dedicated it to Saint Charalambos.