Velanidia.
Cythera.
PELOPONNESE
228
323. Cythera, Palaiochora (Κύθηρα, Παλαιόχωρα)
322. Cape Maleas, Saint George (Ακρωτήριο Μαλέας, Άγιος Γεώργιος)
321. Velanidia, Metamorphosis (Βελανίδια, Μεταμόρφωση)
321. Velanidia, Aghios Panteleimon, mural painting (Βελανίδια, Άγιος
Παντελεήμων, τοιχογραφία)
321.
Velanidia.
The barrel-vaulted churches of Aghios Panteleimon, Aghios
Myron and Aghios Theodoros, around Velanidia village, contain
wall-paintings of the late 13th c. The barrel-vaulted church of
Saint John Chrysostom with its later transverse narthex in the S,
preserves wall-paintings of the 14th c. Traces of wall-paintings
of the same era survive in the distyle cross-in-square church of
Metamorphosis.
322.
Cape Maleas.
On the steep promontory, three and a half hours from Aghios
Nikolaos village stands the aisleless, domed church of Saint
George with remarkable decoration from the first half of the
15th c. The naiskos is attached at the NE corner of an earlier
and larger, but ruined, barrel-vaulted, single-nave church. An
aisleless Byzantine church, also ruined, survives E of Saint
George’s. There is also an aisleless cave church, where – ac-
cording to tradition – Hosios Thomas of Maleas led a hermetic
life. The small church of Aghia Irene was built on an earlier
church in the 19th c.
323.
Cythera.
The island of Cythera still keeps its Byzantine history alive
through the numerous churches and fortresses located at
Chora – Kapsali and Mylopotamos, and the castle city of Pal-
aiochora that was deserted after Hayreddin Barbarossa’s raid
in the First Venetian-Turkish war in 1537. Cythera, a natural
