The path is the mountain of Stavrovouni to Larnaca side. It starts just below the Monastery of Stavrovouni and ends 2km outside Anglisides village near the slaughterhouse. Characteristic are the beautiful reforested areas. It offers impressive views of the Larnaca region. Among others you will see the airport, the salt marshes, and the city of Larnaca.
The trail connects to the path Agia Varvara - Stavrovouni - Stavropefkos - Aspradi
About Stavrovouni
In a panoramic mountaintop of Cyprus, like a giant eagle's nest, put from the hand of God for centuries on top of the raised and steep rocky conditions of Olympus, rises imposingly, the aboriginal and closed Monastery of Stavrovouni. It is also located in the same Troodos Mountains that the most beautiful monasteries of Cyprus are located.
It is built on a rugged mountain in the center of southeastern Cyprus, on a peak isolated as peak bell, which can not be obscured by any other neighboring peak due to its size or volume. This top, with an altitude of 700 meters, makes Monastery excellent, providing every visitor an exquisite and breathtaking view in every direction.
Looking to the northeast and in the East, the gaze embraces the fertile valley of Mesaoria with picturesque villages, which shine beneath the hot Cyprus sun and a little below the sea kissed town of Famagusta.
Indulging in the sunny plain in crystal stretches from the foothills of Stavrovouni and extends to Larnaca and Alykes and west by the limits of the Limassol district. In the background you can admire the blue Mediterranean sea, to the mountains of Lebanon.
The West holds a different view: The tops of the massive of Troodos Mountains, bathed in the rich light of the island, folding and shrinking, guides the eyes to the mountains of Machairas.
In this so beautiful place he wanted the Holy Cross to stand and set up an altar to the Crucified Jesus. And permanently standing on this hill the Cross, having loved his footstool Monastery. Up here uninterruptedly bless quadripartite Cross of Christ to the ends of the Saints Island, and periskepei with immaculate grace of, the blessed inhabitants of the blissfully land.
HISTORY OF THE MONASTERY
The history of the monastery Stavrovouni was from the beginning closely intertwined with the fate of the long-suffering island of Cyprus. The Monastery, famous and prestigious, and located close to the major port of Alikes (Larnaca), has always been a target of occasional invaders and conquerors of the island.
Founded in 327/8 AD, with the beginning of the Byzantine period, the Queen Mother Saint Helen, during the return trip from Jerusalem to Constantinople anchored in Cyprus and is inhabited by Orthodox Monks, keepers of the venerable relics, which devoted to it the holy empress.
During the Frankish Monastery taking it for about two centuries, to papal Benedictine Monks.
With the occupation of the island from the Turks, the Monastery of serious destruction to populate little later again by Orthodox monks.
With the beginning of British rule manned by Cypriots Mount Athos monks, who are renovating and transplanted to this the Lonely communal institution, according to the standards of the monasteries of Mount Athos.
THE ANCIENT STATUE, THE CURRENT CONDITION OF STAVROVOUNI & THE NAME OF THE TERMS
At the top of the mountain of Stavrovouni and in its place the Church of today Monastery, according to tradition, there was a pre-Christian pagan temple. This tradition is reinforced by both the original name of the mountain as Olympus, for which reason the name is below, and the habit during the season, prevailed Christianity, be erected Christian churches in figurines position.
Two statuettes of limestone, found in the monastery area, provide additional evidence of this.
Additionally, the human presence since the pre-Christian times the space occupied by the Monastery today evidenced by a recent discovery: A copper ploughshare of the Late Bronze Age, identical respectively plowshares, found in Engomi Famagusta, and dated around 1200 B.C.
The Olympus name is word pelasgian, pre-Hellenic, apparently derived from the name of the famous mountain in Greece and imported into Cyprus with the Greek descent of Equality.
The theokiniti pen of God-bearing Saint Neophytos the inmates writing the 1167 Standard Testament, referring to the mountain of Stavrovouni, geographically located opposite the village, Lefkara, to the calls "Mount Olympus". Makes first pairing of the name terms with the existence in this monastery, the Church which kept the Holy Cross piece.
The name of Stavrovouni as Olympus continues to medieval times ..
At the same time, at least since the early Frankish, because of the holy relic of the monastery begins to coexist and the name Mount St. (or Holy) Cross. But to justify the ancient name of Mount Olympus, the "Olympia" name simultaneously devised as the gunman's name, the right hand of Christ whose cross was and is dedicated to St Helena in the Temple, which was founded here.
The Ottoman ultimately prevails the name "Mount of the Cross", which in modern times, the faithful people of Cyprus called "Mountain of the Cross" and finally "Stavrovouni".
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY CROSS OF THE SAINT HELENA AND THE MOUNT OF OLYMPUS
The foundation of the Church of the Holy Cross on Mount Olympus (Stavrovouni) is directly linked, according to tradition, the journey of Queen Mother St. Helena to Palestine in order to find the Holy Cross and the construction of churches in the Holy Land.
This was a wish and the son of Constantine the Great, and the St. Helen had seen the apparition, who incited to the same purpose.
Despite her age - she was then 78 years old - begins with youthful zeal the task of labeling, restoration and enhancement of the holy sites.
After many adventures St. Helen discovers the three Crosses, the Lord and the two brigands and the nails with which the Lord was nailed to the Cross. The recognition of the Holy Cross is the following miracle: A dead woman was led to burial. Saint Makarios Archbishop ordered the cortege to stop. After warm prayer and successively and separately the three Crosses on the dead, she rose, when touched the third cross. The Cross of the Lord! Saint Helena commanded then divided vertically the Holy Cross, in order to create two crosses. The former one left in Jerusalem, the other one was carrying a journey from Jerusalem to Constantinople. It is from this, the Second Cross, left local cuts, according to tradition.
Regarding the other two Crosses of the thieves, because the Bible was unable to distinguish which of them belonged to "the right hand" Good Thief and who in "the left", and because the other thought that so many years buried in the Cross of Christ and they were getting blessing, and should not be neglected, commanded to be dismantled, and the rotation of the horizontal wood to form two new crosses. So they each containing part of the Cross of the Good Thief. So if regarded as this version correct, then we must conclude that St. Helena has dedicated the Temple of Stavrovouni one of the two Crosses.
According to tradition, Cyprus then was plagued by terrible drought (it had not rained for 36 consecutive years), which caused pestiferous diseases, and the island was full of deadly snakes. The disaster had led many residents to migrate to other places, in order to survive.
Angel of the Lord appeared in her sleep Holy and told her that it was God's will to build churches in Cyprus, who dedicate pieces of the True Cross, to be honored here and the Cross of the Lord. Then miraculously the Holy Cross was moved by divine power at the top of Mount Olympus, the current Stavrovouni, indicating the Holy, the place where they had to erect a temple in His honor.
The humble empress came indeed personally to mountain Olympus and with the help of some residents of the surrounding areas and its people, removes preexisting pagan temple and erect a temple to the glory of God. In this original temple dedicated to one of the two Crosses of the thieves, by placing in the center of the piece of the Holy Cross, as well as a holy nail.
In the same tradition, St. Helen erected and other temples on the island (like in Tochni), endowing them and those pieces of hallowed Symbol of the Passion of the Lord. also carries with actions of a ship full of cats from Asia Minor (the bay, which anchored the ship named since Cape of Gata or Cat), left the dried earth to remove snakes. And later, from Istanbul, he ensured and achieved return of Cypriots in the island, who had xenitefthei because of drought.
Remembering the passing of the Queen Mother St. Helena from Cyprus and the establishment than that of the Holy Cross Monastery in Stavrovouni perpetuated and the inscription on a stone slab, which is now fitted in the corridor to the north of the Catholic (main church) of the Monastery .
Frankish rule (1192-1570) During the period of Frankish written some of the black pages of history of the strife-torn Cyprus: Captivity, oppression, poverty, pestiferous diseases, natural disasters, epidemics .... And the Monastery of Stavrovouni, who always took pride in symbol of the Passion and Martyrdom, synepathe and tested together with the troubled island as never before.
Ottoman rule (1570 - 1878) With the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans (1453) and their various conquests in the areas paramesogeies Cyprus remained as an "outpost" of the conquests of the Christian West to East. Although not to the Venetian authorities of Cyprus paid an annual tribute to the Ottomans, the conquest of the last was a matter of time. The attack of the Ottomans against Cyprus in 1570 after a cruel war that lasted a whole year, and with the fall of Famagusta in August 1571 completed the occupation of the island dystinou through nightmarish atmosphere massacres, looting, dishonor, disaster. For Cyprus began the dark period of Turkish rule.
British rule (1878 - 1960) In the summer of 1878, quite unexpectedly, the Cyprus changed once again dominant. The declining Ottoman Empire, having the absolute necessity of Great Britain help and support, sold the Greek big island to the English. Britain, which with relatively ease acquired the sovereignty of the island, had of course many reasons and plenty of interest in this conquest.
Regarding the wretched Cypriots, which is certainly not at all asked for this transfer, viewed in principle with joy and optimism that fact. The joy and hope of the Greek Cypriots for a better future and longed to finally union with the mainland Greece and very clearly expressed in the Kition Kyprianos Economides and Archbishop Sophronius, when the July 1878 welcoming the first British High Commander of the island. Unfortunately these hopes were soon dashed, and the wretched Cypriots understood very early that the English conquest marked the beginning of new sufferings for the place.
Independence Period (1960 - present)
By the end of the liberation struggle of the Cypriot people in 1959 and the signing of the Zurich London agreements, Cyprus gains independence and the Republic of Cyprus was established in 1960.
The Abbot Archimandrite Athanasios
For the first time Cyprus after eight centuries gained its freedom. The small number brotherhood of the monastery under the guidance of the Elder Germanos still gives "good witness" despite the difficulties faced by the shortage of men.
The fall of the great rock at the eastern end of the Monastery (1963) and the repair work of the Department of Antiquities in various parts of the monastery stood important events.
1979 -80 is enlargement of the old narrow road between Ayia Varvara and Stavrovouni and asphalting of.
In 1976 the fathers of the historical Monastery St. Barnabas after the known devastating consequences of the Turkish invasion and persecuted by Attila find shelter Monastery Stavrovouni.
In 1982, the sudden death of Elder Germanos plunges the monastic brotherhood in deep mourning and irreplaceable vacuum.
The same year a joint vote of the brotherhood and the consent of Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Kition enthroned young abbot at the Monastery Archimandrite Athanasios.
Since the beginning of the abbot and the sustained growth of the brotherhood cared and supported the creation of new buildings in the Monastery.
Until 1983 the monastery had no telephone nor electricity. then made sure to provide telephone network and for electrification. With electrification made possible and the water supply by drilling the monastery. The water supply has solved several problems and assisting in carrying out construction work.
Under the guidance of Abbot Athanasius, the 25-member brotherhood of the monastery, with a sense of responsibility for the precious spiritual legacy of earlier fathers, struggling against the power for the realization of the monastic ideal.
The Monastery of Stavrovouni is parochial and ecclesiastically belongs to Metropolis Kition.
If you have not yet visited the Stavrovouni, do not lose any more time!
Starting point: Road to Stavrovouni, 2 km before Stavrovouni Monastery
Trail length: 2,5 km
Calculable time: 1 hours
Degree of difficulty: 1
Format: Linear.
ADDRESS: Stavrovouni Area