CHURCH OF PANAGIA ELEOUSA

This particular religious monument is the old church of Kato Drys and has been fully restored by the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus. It is a plain, single-chamber church of Byzantine style, with the stone visible in its external masonry. In its interior an unadorned wood-carved iconostasis and two lecterns dominate, while two particularly old icons of the Theotokos stand out. These icons bear a gold relief cover (“shirt”), which the older residents placed in order to protect them from the destructive raids of the Crusaders and the Turks. The church celebrates with all solemnity in the middle of the summer, on 15 August, at the Dormition of the Theotokos.