Panagia of Kyras (Livadia)

This important early Christian and middle Byzantine monument is located to the north-east of the occupied village of Livadia in Karpasia. Architecturally it is a small cross-in-square church with a dome, which was built upon the ruins of an older basilica. The church was famous for the rare mosaic of the Virgin Mary in the apse of the sanctuary (a work of the 6th-7th century), which was unfortunately destroyed and stolen by antiquities smugglers after the Turkish invasion of 1974. Recently the church underwent conservation, but it remains inactive for worship use.