Churches of Tochni Village

Sts. Kostantinos & Eleni Church

A truly spectacular phenomenon is the building of the church of Saints Constantine and Helen on a bridge in the village of Tochni. A Phenomenon that might not be seen anywhere else in the world. The Tradition has it that the construction of the bridge and the construction of the temple itself, from the mother of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine, St. Helen. A tradition which is verging on the truth, since there are many signs that lead to the conclusion that the Queen Mother Helen stepped and sanctified by her presence, the blessed soil of Cyprus.

Stavros Ruined Church

Somewhere thirty meters on the northeast side of the parish church of Saints Constantine and Helen on a small hill, a few surviving ruins of another church that operated in the community. According to foreign travellers and writers of Cypriot religious texts, the ruined temple is among the Gothic monuments of the island and built or converted into Latin monument and was used by the Romans during the period that they have been governing the island. Regarding the chronology of the building of the temple, there is no source that leads to it. Enlart assumes that the building might be constructed during the first half of the 14th century, namely around 1340. His support is on the fact that after the theft of the Holy Cross of the Temple of Tochni, residents tried to find some way to recover the stolen sacred relic. As such, they thought the erection of a new church dedicated to the Holy and Life-giving Cross.

Sotiros Christou Church

A few meters from the main highway at the entrance of Tochni through the residential area, there is a chapel dedicated to the Saviour Christ. The chapel was built in the 1950’s, at the expense of an expatriate of Tochni, called Meletinia and who died in America. As stated by the residents of the village, the small church is private and is permanently closed.

Agia Varvara Chapel

In the residential area, to the southwest side, next to a street of the village, and nearly surrounded by an old locust tree, there is a chapel dedicated to St. Barbara a Great Martyr of Christianity. The chapel was built about forty years ago. In the same place, says the builder of the chapel Christodoulos Constantinou from Tochni and now a resident of Limassol, in a rope, for a long time the residents of the village have been lighting a candle in front of an icon of St. Barbara. In the late 1960’s, the late Christina Kleovoulou from Tochni wanted to make a wish, which was to build a chapel at her birthplace.

 

Courtesy of the Communicty Council of Tochni