Fifth to sixth centuries CE
The Church of Panagia Angeloktisti at Kiti incorporates several building phases. The apse of an early Christian basilica was constructed in the fifth century. An apse is the semicircular eastern part of a church behind the altar. After a fire in the sixth century it was decorated with mosaics and frescoes, and part of the ancient apse was incorporated into the later church.
The principal sacred image and work of art is the sixth-century mosaic high in the vault of the apse behind the altar. The Virgin stands with the Child between the archangels Michael and Gabriel. The gold ground, solemn frontal composition and Greek inscriptions belong to the pre-iconoclastic period, before the widespread destruction of sacred images in Byzantium.
This is one of the oldest and rarest Christian mosaics in Cyprus. The official description compares it with the early Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna; works from this period survive in very few places. We therefore focus not simply on a beautiful image but on the coexistence of the fifth-century apse, the sixth-century mosaic and the later church building.
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