The American missionary Lorenzo Warriner Pease visited all of Cyprus.
In 1836 he went to Paphos:
We did not arrive in Ktema till about one hour after dark. We there found our way to the monastery, which was uninhabited except by a miserable old man. [It is the Episcopal residence, though being near the agas, the bishop prefers his monastery at Chrysorogiatissa where he is not so much under his influence and fear]…
Here in the rocks, which appear above ground, we found a considerable amount of tombs which are cut of the solid rocks. We then turned and went into the village of Ktema again, which has about 30 Greek and 80 Turkish families. The greater part of it is in ruins. We went into a coffee house, where we were welcomed by several Turks. We sat to take our coffee, I talked a little Arabic with a negro from Darfoor. As we passed along the streets we were the object of general curiosity both to men and boys. We pursued our way to St. Sophia, (formerly a church, now a mosque). A Turk went before us and shut the door of the mosque and then we were told that the doorkeeper was absent with the key. One reason why they were afraid probably was that a Greek priest was with us and there is probably some superstition about it. the church is Venetian…We ran around the hill a little and found a heathen temple, with several niches cut out of the solid rock which had been used after ages as the holy place of a Christian church as was evident from some pieces of painting in it.
Drawing: PNT-00888, The Mosque of St. Sophia, Paphos, Tessa Henderson, 1985-1988
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
The 'What I Saw...' series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus).
