THE BELLAPAIS MONASTERY
The entrance to a thirteenth-century
church which is joined on the south of a cloister is
from the courtyard off the village square. It was
used by the Greek Orthodox community until its last
members were forced to leave in 1976. Today it is
open for visitors.
There is an imposing porch with
three bays. On the walls to both sides of the
doorway are the remains of plaster and frescoes made
by Italian artists probably in 15 th century. They
portray prophets and the life of Christ, but are
badly-preserved. The church being roughly of a
square shape it has a nave, two aisles and
transepts. If you enter the interior, it is much as
the Greeks left it, with intricately carved pulpit
and bishop's throne still intact in the dim glow of
five fairly restrained chandeliers.
Nave in the
centre leads up steps to the choir and altar, while
the aisles lead into arcaded transepts. The North
transept reaches sacristy and the south one may have
had a small altar at the eastern end. Over the
entrance, a horse-shoe-shaped wooden yinaikonítis ,
the rib-vaulted ceiling is supported by four massive
columns that became half columns at the transepts
with thickly carved capitals.
The addition of a
women's gallery above the main doorway is the work
of the Orthodox community. Iconostasis that has been
also added, today divides the choir and altar from
the main body of the church. Beneath the floor
pavement several Lusignan kings are buried. A
stairway outside leads to a rooftop parapet which is
the best vantage point for the ruined chapter house
to the east of the cloister and leads also to a
small treasury.
From the eastern side of cloister
the doors lead to chapter house and also common
room. Above them was once the dormitory. Today both
rooms have no roof. From the chapter house, which
was sort of administration office were functioned
the orders of the day.
The shape of the room is
square and contains seating round the sides and
richly carved brackets which in by gone times
supported the ribs for the roof. A central column
that disappeared long time ago was in 1990s replaced
by a hybridization of a marble column with
mismatched capital that merely detracts from the
Gothic carvings round the walls.
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