Agioi Varnavas and Ilarion at Peristerona by Riccardo Quaranta
I visited the church of Agioi Varnavas and Ilarion at Peristerona on my way from the Troodos mountains to Nicosia in August 2021.
Upon arriving at the church, we found it closed, although the opening times on the door stated that it should have been open at that moment. As it happened many times when visiting churches in Cyprus, I had to find someone who had the key or could contact the keykeeper for us. In this case it was very simple as there is a nice cafe right in front of the church so, while we ordered a good Cyprus coffee, we also asked the owner if he knew how to get the church open. He then made a call and, while we were sipping our good and really hot coffee (in a 40°C weather), the caretaker of the church showed up and opened the door for us.
The stone interior is simple as most of the ancient decorations are lost and not many wall paintings are left and it felt just like another Byzantine church like many others.
Beside the small mishap of finding the church closed during opening time, reaching the church was really easy because the town is on the main road and the church is well signposted. Overall it was a pleasant visit but, in my opinion, the five-domed church does not have anything too special to deserve the inscription in the WH list.