Twelfth century
Saint Neophytos Monastery developed in the twelfth century around the cave of the Cypriot hermit and writer Neophytos. As a young man he secretly entered a monastery, learned to read and write, and after a pilgrimage to Jerusalem settled in the mountains near Paphos.
Neophytos cut a cell and a small church into the rock. Cells for disciples gradually appeared nearby. The earliest paintings are in the Enkleistra, the cave complex where the saint lived, prayed and worked.
The main monastery church dates from the sixteenth century and preserves frescoes of that period. A silver sarcophagus and relics of Saint Neophytos are kept in the church. One complex thus brings together a hermit’s cave, medieval painting and living monastic life.
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