The church of Panayia tou Araka is located among green forests at the foot of the Troodos Mountains near the village of Lagoudera. It was built around the end of the 12th century. It is believed that the initiator of the temple was a rich Byzantine Leo Autenta.
Originally it was a stone structure with a roof in the shape of a cross and a traditional dome for Orthodox churches. However, nowadays, in order to protect the ancient building from precipitation and wind, it was covered with a kind of "sarcophagus" - it has a new tiled roof right on top of the old one, and wooden lattices were installed on all sides.
The Church of Panaya tou Araca is famous not only because of its venerable age. The temple is particularly famous for its unique frescoes, which were created as early as 1192, but are still very well preserved today.
All the drawings are distinguished by the softness of the shapes and roundness of the lines, as well as the amazingly harmonious colour combinations. The frescoes depict the Virgin Mary with little Jesus in her arms surrounded by archangels, scenes from the Bible, as well as various saints.
An inscription on one of the walls of the church states that the author of the frescoes is Hieromonk Fedor, so it is believed that they were all executed by the famous Greek artist Theodore Apsewdis, who is also known as Theodore Apsewd.
In addition, there are several other paintings in the church that date back to a later period (16th and 17th century) and depict Jesus Christ, John the Baptist and other important figures in the history of Christianity.
It is mainly due to these frescoes that the church of Panayia tou Araka was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today, it is considered one of the most important cultural monuments of the Byzantine era.
