Summary
Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, the 14th century Church of Timios Stavros (Holy Cross) at Pelendri village, is one of ten monuments making up the World Heritage List Painted Churches in the Troodos Region, Cyprus, and is decorated with exquisite wall paintings of the Palaiologan period (1261-1453AD).
The church was originally a single-aisled domed structure, built around the middle of the 12th century, and may have been the church of a cemetery. It was destroyed under unknown circumstances, and the present form of the church is the result of several additions and alterations, carried out throughout various periods, with only the original apse surviving. According to an inscription in the apse, the original wall paintings date to 1171/1172 with fragments of the decoration preserved on the apse under the layer of the 14th century frescoes. The main part of the church was decorated during the second half of the 14th century by at least two artists. The north aisle served as a private chapel for the family of the Latin feudal lord of the area, Ioannes Lusignan (1353 – 1374/1375), and the village itself was once the property of Jean de Lusignan, son of the Lusignan King of Cyprus, Hugh IV.
The UNESCO Chair on Digital Cultural Heritage at Cyprus University of Technology’s (CUT) Digital Heritage Research Lab (DHRLab) and its partners undertook to record the monument as part of a joint training exercise under the EU-Funded ERA Chair MNEMOSYNE project. The original data from the 2023 mission has now been processed to provide an HBIM reference model aiding conservators and architects in the maintenance and protection of the building as part of the EUreka3D project. The model, and its accompanying data, will be made available though Europeana using the EUreka3D Data Hub to the public and will be further developed to engage audiences and cultural tourists with the history and significance of the site through incorporating both tangible and intangible heritage assets into compelling narratives using digital technologies.
The portfolio of images can be downloaded here as a .PDF binder
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