The church of Panagia Chryseleousa was built towards the end of the 20th century. Its construction began in 1978 and the first mass took place on September 8th 1991, while a few years later it underwent renovation thus acquiring its present form.
The present church was built to replace an older church also dedicated to Panagia which stood on the grounds and was demolished in 1977. When the church was demolished, it was revealed that it had been built in three stages and that its dimensions were 27 m long x 9 m wide. Additionally, it was discovered that the previous church was an ancient one. In particular, as Manoloudes remarks, when the first iconostasis of the old church was cleaned the bema doors revealed the date 1608, which was in fact the date of painting. Therefore, based on this date and in combination with the experts’ opinion which states that the iconostasis is approximately 50 years older that the hagiography, meaning that it dates back to 1560, Manoloudes concludes that the church was even older since a church’s iconostasis is usually constructed after the church has been built. Consequently, its construction is believed to have begun in the year 1500 or earlier, that is during the Venetian occupation in Cyprus, which is, after all, linked to the Venetian lions located above the Holy Door. According to Manoloudes, it took 350 years to complete the church, the construction of which finished in 1848. In other words, construction began during the Venetian occupation and was completed during the Turkish occupation.
The bell tower was demolished in 1963-64, that is prior to the demolition of the church in 1977, and the bell was placed on metal base on the right arc. Later on, in 1973, a small bell tower was built and the bell was placed there.
Sources:
Georgios M. Manoloudes, “AKAKI – History and Tradition”, April 2001
Georgios M. Manoloudes , “AKAKI, ENLIGHTENING THE PAST”, Nicosia 2013
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