Sourp Magar, Armenian monastery in Kyrenia, Cyprus.
Sourp Magar is an Armenian monastery complex situated in a forested valley of the Pentadaktylos mountain range at an elevation above 500 meters north of Nicosia. The buildings display characteristic Armenian architectural elements adapted to the mountain setting where they were constructed.
The monastery was founded around 1000 as a Coptic religious center but transitioned to Armenian control after 1425. This shift reflected the growing Armenian presence in the region following political changes in Cilicia that prompted migration and resettlement.
The monastery's name means Saint Macarius, after Macarius of Alexandria (died 395), to whom it was dedicated. Ottoman-era records call it the Blue Monastery for the colour of its doors and windows. Its feast is celebrated on the first Sunday of May, and Armenian Cypriots revived the annual pilgrimage on 6 May 2007, when about 150 people visited after 33 years.
Sourp Magar stands at 530 m on the Pentadaktylos range, about 1.5 km west of Halevga forest station and 11 km north-east of Kythrea, in the part of Cyprus occupied since 1974. The complex is ruined and unstable, with reinforced-concrete additions from the post-war period, so entry is not a casual visit. The annual pilgrimage was revived on 6 May 2007 and repeated between 2009 and 2016.
The monastery's two chapels in the north-east of the courtyard are the surviving side aisles of a larger church whose nave has vanished; a rebuilt arch and shared vestibule now mark where it stood. Their apses use masonry close to eleventh-century churches at Lythrangomi and Aphendrika on the Karpass Peninsula.
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