Antiphonitis (7)
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Antiphonitis – more correctly the Church of Christ Antiphonitis (Χριστός Ἀντιφωνητής) – is a domed
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...
in
Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...
, in
Kyrenia District The Kyrenia District, or simply Kyrenia, is one of the six districts of Cyprus. Its capital city is Kyrenia. It is the smallest of Cyprus's districts, and is the only one controlled in its entirety by the unrecognised de facto state of Northern C ...
, located in the mountains near the village of Kalograia. It is reached from the network of tracks and small roads in the area of the Herbarium and Agios Amvrosios. It is under the '' de facto'' control of
Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, island of Cyprus. It is List of states with limited recognition, recognis ...
. The name Christ Antiphonitis means "Christ who responds" and a number of Greek churches are so designated. The epithet appears to derive from a miraculous
icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...
of some kind which responded to prayers, but no account of this icon in Cyprus is known. The name is testified in the late medieval period. Writing in the sixteenth century,
Stefano Lusignan Stefano Lusignan (1537–1590), also known as Étienne de Lusignan and Estienne de Lusignan, was a priest, scholar, and titular bishop of Venetian Cyprus who migrated to Italy and France. Life Lusignan was born in Nicosia, in Venetian Cyprus, ...
in his ''Description de toute l'isle de Cypre'' (Paris, 1580) recalls that ''Antifoniti'' was a fief belonging to his family, that his maternal grandmother Isabella Perez Fabricius founded the monastery of ''Antifonite'' and that his brother John (who had become a monk under the name Hilarion) died there.


Architecture

The church—built on the site of a natural spring at the head of a valley—was constructed in the twelfth century and belonged originally to a
Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...
monastery. It consists of a single building with a spacious dome carried on eight pillars and is the only surviving example of this type in Cyprus. A ruined and partly restored example is in
Saint Hilarion Castle The Saint Hilarion Castle lies on the Kyrenia Mountains, Kyrenia mountain range, in Cyprus. This location provided the castle with command of the pass road from Kyrenia to Nicosia. It is the best preserved ruin of the three former strongholds in ...
and there was once a similar church at the centre of the Monastery of St. John Chrysostomos at Koutsovendis before the church there was rebuilt at the end of the nineteenth century. The
narthex The narthex is an architectural element typical of Early Christian art and architecture, early Christian and Byzantine architecture, Byzantine basilicas and Church architecture, churches consisting of the entrance or Vestibule (architecture), ve ...
on the western side and the arcade on the south were added a later time, probably in the fifteenth century when the building was under the Latin church. The irregular shape of the dome is perhaps due to damaged sustained during the
1222 Cyprus earthquake The 1222 Cyprus earthquake occurred at about 06:15 UTC on 11 May. It had an estimated magnitude of 7.0–7.5 and triggered a paleotsunami that was recorded in Libya and Alexandria. The strongest shaking was felt in Nicosia, Limassol and Paphos. M ...
.


Paintings

The Church of Christ Antiphonitis is notable for the array of
fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...
es on the walls and on the pillars. The oldest paintings belong to the end of the twelfth century and are thought to be a local interpretation of the style of the late Comnenian period as it appears at Panagia tou Arakou at Lagoudera. When first studied, the Virgin Mary and prelates in the apse were damaged, but the saints in the sanctuary were well preserved. Early painting also include decons, martyrs and stylites. There was a Baptism on the south-west pillar of the nave. The remaining paintings are later in date and belong to the 1400s. They are executed in a post-Byzantine local revival style. On the south wall was a
Tree of Jesse The Tree of Jesse is a depiction in art of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, shown in a branching tree which rises from Jesse (biblical figure), Jesse of Bethlehem, the father of King David. It is the original use of the family tree as a schemati ...
, and on the north an elaborate
Last Judgement The Last Judgment is a concept found across the Abrahamic religions and the '' Frashokereti'' of Zoroastrianism. Christianity considers the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to entail the final judgment by God of all people who have ever lived, res ...
or Μέλλουσα Κρίση. In the dome is
Christ Pantocrator In Christian iconography, Christ Pantocrator (, ) is a specific depiction of Christ. or , literally 'ruler of all', but usually translated as 'almighty' or 'all-powerful', is derived from one of many names of God in Judaism. The Pantokrator i ...
surround by angels. A. and J. Stylianou report that the paintings of the dome were already "badly damaged" at the time of their studies in the 1960s and 1970s. The paintings in the narthex are faded due to sunlight, but include a notably large depiction of
St. George Saint George (;Geʽez: ጊዮርጊስ, , ka, გიორგი, , , died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was an early Christian martyr who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to holy tradition, he was a soldier in the ...
. Some time after 1975, some of the fresco paintings were stolen and sold on the international art market. The Last Judgement has been badly damaged, and the heads of the twelfth-century angels in the apse damaged and partly removed. The Tree of Jesse has also been removed.


Iconostasis and icons

Writing in the 1930s, Rupert Gunnis noted the
iconostasis In Eastern Christianity, an iconostasis () is a wall of icons and religious paintings, separating the nave from the sanctuary in a Church (building), church. ''Iconostasis'' also refers to a portable icon stand that can be placed anywhere withi ...
painted in blue and gold, the doors of which are dated 1650, thus during the reign of
Mehmed IV Mehmed IV (; ; 2 January 1642 – 6 January 1693), nicknamed as Mehmed the Hunter (), was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1648 to 1687. He came to the throne at the age of six after his father was overthrown in a coup. Mehmed went on to b ...
when the tax burden appears to have been lightened. The majority of the icons were of the seventeenth century with one of the Archangel Michael dated 1659. The iconostasis was removed after 1975 and some individual icons panels from it were found with a private collector in the Netherlands. The Government of Cyprus engaged in legal action to secure their restitution. Four icons were repatriated in September, 2013. Separately, an icon from the church showing the Virgin Mary and dating to the fifteenth century was located in Athens and returned to Cyprus on 14 September 1998.


Graffiti

The church is notable for the
graffiti Graffiti (singular ''graffiti'', or ''graffito'' only in graffiti archeology) is writing or drawings made on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written "monikers" to elabor ...
and pilgrim records scratched into the lower frescoes during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They are predominantly in
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
but a few are also in the
Ottoman Turkish alphabet The Ottoman Turkish alphabet () is a version of the Perso-Arabic script used to write Ottoman Turkish for over 600 years until 1928, when it was replaced by the Latin-based modern Turkish alphabet. Though Ottoman Turkish was primarily writt ...
. They are unique documents of popular history, telling us about the ordinary Cypriots who visited the building. Among the dates visible are 1803, 1888, 1891, 1896, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1910, 1911, 1919, 1930 and 1958.


Jurisdiction

In the 1930s, the Church of Christ Antiphonitis was the property of Kykkos Monastery. Presently it is classed as a museum and appears in the
List of museums in Northern Cyprus This is a list of museums within the cities of Northern Cyprus. References External links Distinctive-properties-ltd.comNorthcyprusonline.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Museums in Northern Cyprus Museums in Northern Cyprus, Northern Cyprus-relat ...
. Antiphonitis monastery (Ιερά Μονή Αρχαγγέλου Αντιφωνητού) is listed as monastery of Church of Cyprus on its official website.


References

{{Reflist, 30em


External links


Inventory of Byzantine Churches on CyprusChurch of Christ Antiphonitis in 3D (EpHEMERA Database)
12th-century churches Eastern Orthodox church buildings in Cyprus Cypriot Orthodox monasteries Byzantine church buildings in Northern Cyprus Buildings and structures in Girne District Church buildings with domes