Not far from Platres and the Cedar Valley Reserve is the highest monastery in Cyprus, Trooditissa, which for its appearance and location was called "the first step to Heaven."
Trooditis is very loved by people. Despite the fact that this is a closed monastery, everyone who is brought to these places by faith and reverence will be welcomed here - the monks know a lot of amazing stories about the miraculous spiritual power and share them with pleasure.
The history of the founding of the monastery of Trooditissa goes back to the time of iconoclasm movement in Byzantium in the first half of the 9th century. The period of iconoclasm was notorious for the fact that monasteries robbed and deprived of property, and their frescoes and icons were ruthlessly destroyed. The movement bypassed Cyprus, and it was here that escaped Byzantine monks, collectors and connoisseurs of icons. One of them was a monk who hid the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, in honor of which the monastery of Trooditissa was founded in 1250.
The monastery has a very difficult history: several times wildfires moved here and caused huge damage to the buildings, but they were repaired again and again. In 1585 the monastery was burned by the fire of the Turks, and long after that it remained abandoned. Only in the 18th century the restoration of the monastery began, and in 1731 a temple was built on its territory, after all the reconstructions in 1842 it took a form that has survived to this day.
The monastery of Trooditissa is known for two shrines stored here . One of them is the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Trooditis, the main icon, in honor of which was founded by the monastery . In 1799, . the famous Cretan icon painter Ioannis Cornaro created for the icon a magnificent silver salary on which two angels are depicted over the heads of the Virgin and Child Jesus in the hands . It is believed that the icon has a magical th power that is able to give the child to couples who can not conceive it for themselves for a long time . Such miraculous properties are attributed to the second shrine of the monastery - "The Belt of the Virgin", which, according to legend, was the property of the Virgin Mary herself .
Today a strict self-sacrificing charter was adopted at the monastery of Trooditissa. The monks organized a monastic publishing house, which produces books about modern Orthodoxy, new heresies and occult organizations. At the monastery there is a small bookstore where you can buy these books in several languages
Every year on August 15, in the monastery of Trooditissa, a large religious festival of all the churches of Cyprus dedicated to the Mother of God is celebrated, - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.
How to get
Monastery Trooditissa, Platres, CY-4820, Cyprus
The monastery is officially closed to the public; the schedule of its work for believers and pilgrims - daily from 10:00 to 18:00 from June to October, from November to May - from 10:00 to 16:00.
If you are driving along the B8 route on the route Limassol - Troodos, then approximately 2 km after Troodos there will be a fork and sign of the monastery of Trooditissa to the left. Somewhere in 1, 3 km turn right to the road from the village-resort of Platres. After 3 km there will be a congress to the monastery.
If you follow from Larnaca airport, then by bus to Nicosia, then to Kakopetria or to Platres, where you can reach the monastery only by taxi or car (or on foot 5 km). Monastery of Trooditissa, Cyprus
| Mosaic, Monastery of Trooditissa, Cyprus |
| Mosaic, Monastery Trooditissa |