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Apostolos Andreas Monastery

Apostolos Andreas Monastery

Apostolos Andreas Monastery | Karpaz

From Dipkarpaz take the road that is signed for Apostolos Andreas and follow the route along the southern shore of the peninsula. There are many beaches easily accessed from this road, most of them have rudimentary changing facilities and showers, and there are small restaurants serving the local staples of grilled fish, and a variety of kebabs with chips and salad.

 The monastery of Apostolos Andreas was never a true monastery, it was merely the parish church for the local inhabitants, and the buildings that comprise the whole are mostly of 20th century construction. It is looked after by a small community of Greeks and the priest from Dipkarpaz makes the trip to say mass here for the benefit of those in residence.

Built on the site where tradition says St. Andrew came ashore and found water, is a small chapel over the gushing spring. After the Monastery of St. Barnabas, this ranks second as a site of pilgrimage and both Greek and Turkish Cypriots will come to take the waters. The alleged curative powers of these waters is such that bottles are taken to sick relatives across the globe in the hope that it will effect a cure.

 The quantity of pilgrims’ shelters around the complex attest to the volume of visitors that once came to make the annual pilgrimage. The most popular times were the period covering St. Andrew’s feast days of 15th August and November 30th . Since the opening of the borders, Greek Cypriots are able once again to freely visit one of their favourite pilgrimage sites, and the weekends are particularly busy.

Lavinia Neville Smith
Lavinia Neville Smith
Lavinia Neville Smith first came to North Cyprus in 1995, and fell in love with the country and the Turkish Cypriot people. A self confessed dilettante, with a varied working career, it was not until she returned in 1997 and went into tourism that she was able to put to good use her knowledge of history, ancient and modern, acquired long ago at school. She is a co-author of the Landmark Visitors Guide to North Cyprus, and continues to promote this beautiful country as far afield as possible.