In the eastern Mesaoria plain at Trikomo (Famagusta district), near the east coast. The settlement at Trikomo is mentioned from the early 14th century [as a fief of Isabelle of Armenia, widow of Amaury of Tyre (d.1310): Mas Latrie (1886) 220] through the late medieval and early modern period, when it was among the largest villages of Cyprus [Mas Latrie (1852-61) 3.508, Mas Latrie (1879) 416; Dawkins (1932) 1.172; Arbel (1995) 510].
Description: The dome-hall structure with semi-circular apse was built in rather good ashlar with brick in the triple apse window arches and in the south façade (in the double recessed window of the gable and the lateral recessed blind arches). The dome drum was built in isodomic courses of good ashlar masonry with twelve arched and recessed windows (without brick, unlike the apse windows). A 7th-century inscription from the Salamis aqueduct (commemorating the completion of five arches) was incorporated into the masonry of the southeast corner at the height of the apse window arches [published in Pouilloux et al. (1987) 84-85, and Sodini (1998) 628; photograph in the Department of Antiquities Archive J.8150]. Inside the naos, the arched recesses along the north and south walls are formed not by the usual engaged piers, but by cylindrical piers under the dome [MKE 6, 21-23; Megaw (1974) 83, n.116 and 86]. Important fragments of fresco decoration are preserved in the dome, the bema vault, the apse, and the north and south arch soffits.
Dating: An early 12th-century date is suggested by the architecture and style of fresco deoration, which is related to other early 12th-century cycles on Cyprus [Winfield (1972) 285-90; Stylianou (1985) 486-88; a date in the 1130s is proposed in Weyl Carr and Morrocco (1991) 55; see also Velmans (1984) 143 for a later dating in the 1170s, based on the iconography of the dome decoration; on the relationship with the Martorana mosaics (Sicily) and in particular the Annunciation Virgin (style, iconography), see Kitzinger (1990) 236-38]; Procopiou suggests a late 11th / early 12th-century date, with a terminus ante quem in 1120 [Procopiou (2006a) 86].
Later additions / alterations: A large arch was opened in the north wall and the northwest cylindrical pier was removed when a north chapel was added in the late medieval period (14th century?). The west wall was demolished when a western extension was erected. An early Byzantine carved chancel slab was inserted in the 19th-century bell tower [Soteriou (1935) pl. 136b]. Repairs were made in 1804 [Gunnis (1936) 444], when perhaps the present large window was opened on the south façade.
Modern repairs: In the 1960s the structure was repaired, the plaster was removed from the façades revealing the blocked apse windows which were restored, and the recessed niches on the south façade. The masonry blocking the north and southwest recesses in the naos, and the plaster were removed revealing the fresco decoration which was subsequently cleaned [ARDA 1965, 8, 1966, 9, 1967, 12; AD 22 (1967) 12; Papageorgiou (1968a) 153-55 and 235, Papageorgiou (1969) 156-57].
Early literature: The church is first mentioned by Jeffery, who correctly dated it to the 12th century, even if he described it as ‘early Byzantine’ [Jeffery (1918) 243].
Views: ARDA 1965, figs. 22 and 24; Papageorgiou (1968a) 155-156 [apse wall before restoration]; Hadjisavvas (1991) 90.
Plan / section: Papageorgiou (1995b) 282 [longitudinal section with the west extension]; Procopiou (2006a) 89-91.