Frankish-Venetian Cyprus: Effects of the Renaissance on the Ecclesiastical Architecture of the Island

The paper deals with the effects of the Renaissance on the Orthodox ecclesiastical architecture of the island. Even though the Latin monuments of the island have been thoroughly researched, there are only sporadic works that deal with the Orthodox ecclesiastical architecture of the period. The doctoral thesis of the author in waiting to be published is the only complete work on the subject. The methodology used, involved bibliographic research and to a large degree field research to establish the measurements of all the monuments. Cyprus during the late 15th to late 16th century was under Venetian rule but the government was more interested in establishing a defensive strategy against the threat of the Ottoman Empire rather than building the fine renaissance architecture that was realized in Italy. However, small morphological details and typologies managed to infiltrate the local architecture. This was done through the import of ideas and designs by Venetian architects and engineers who travelled around the colonies or through the use of easily transferable drawings and manuals of architects such as Serlio and Palladio. Perhaps the most important discovery for the Cypriot Orthodox ecclesiastical edifices is the use of harmonic rules, the Venetian foot and proportional ratios used by the Renaissance. All these appear in many remote churches whose builders were most likely in conduct with Italian drawings and books. The novelty of the work appears in the collection and compilation of a list of all the Orthodox churches that were built or were functioning during the late 15th and 16th century on the island. The collection of all their general measurements and the subsequent research and calculations proves that these for the most part, were not arbitrary structures, but followed the then latest design ideas on ratios, as well as the use of venetian measurement systems.