Monastery of Panagia Kanakarias

This foremost religious monument of Cyprus is the katholikon of an old monastic complex in the occupied village of Lythrangomi in Karpasia. The present church is a vaulted basilica with a dome that incorporates sections of an older early Christian basilica. It was world-famous for its invaluable 6th-century mosaics, which were violently detached and stolen by antiquities smugglers after 1974, to be repatriated years later after legal battles. Although the full conservation and restoration of the church was recently completed, its location in the occupied zone makes the free celebration of sacraments impossible.