Liturgical arrangements of the Early Christian Basilicas of Cyprus (4th - 7th centuries)

Doria Nicolaou of the University of Cyprus examines the spatial organization and liturgical furnishings of the holy bema in Early Christian basilicas across Cyprus from the fourth to the seventh century. The lecture is delivered in English, followed by a discussion in Greek. Starting from the premise that the sanctuary layout was shaped by cultic behavior rather than political display, Nicolaou surveys how the area reserved for the clergy evolved chronologically despite losses from later rebuilding, unrecorded early excavations, and the inaccessibility of sites and museum deposits in the area occupied by Turkey since 1974.

In the earliest basilicas of the late fourth and fifth centuries, fixed stone furnishings are largely absent. At the episcopal basilica of Chrysopolitissa in Nea Paphos, the sanctuary sat at the level of the nave, marked by mosaic panels showing a vine, a deer at a spring, and a krater with scriptural inscriptions alluding to the Eucharist. Nicolaou compares the deer motif with a seventh-century mosaic at Akrotiri-Katalymata ton Plakoton. She also examines early corridors behind the apse at Nea Paphos, Agios Herakleidios at Tamassos, and the fifth-century episcopal basilica at Kourion, which had a masonry proto-synthronon and a stepped fore-choir.

During the fifth century, rectangular raised sanctuaries enclosed by Pi-shaped chancel barriers became standard, as at Kampanopetra in Salamis and Ayia Triada at Yialousa. Sixth-century rearrangements brought opus sectile pavements and canopies (ciboria). In the Kourion region and at Akrotiri, two-level enclosed areas before the bema served readers or singers. In coastal urban and pilgrimage churches, chancel barriers expanded laterally to enclose the eastern ends of the side aisles, creating a tripartite bema for secondary tables, reliquaries, or the venerated tombs of bishops such as Epiphanius at Salamis, Auxibius at Soli, and Herakleidios at Tamassos. Fixed altar bases, preserved in situ only at Amathus and Kalavasos-Syrmata, lack relic crypts underneath.

Nicolaou concludes with sixth-century semicircular synthrona, including examples with underlying passageways at Kampanopetra, Salamis, and Soli, and the placement of the solea and ambo. While axial double-stair ambos and monumental synthrona reflect contacts with Constantinople, the tripartite sanctuary, lateral relic installations, and corner ambo on the Amathus acropolis point to links with Phoenicia Prima, Syria, Arabia, and Palestine, suggesting a distinct liturgical tradition within the autocephalous Church of Cyprus. In the discussion afterwards, participants consider whether the stepped enclosures before the bema functioned as ambos, how the sixth-century enclosing of side apses related to the cult of relics, and whether the absence of under-altar relic crypts reflects Antiochian consecration with holy myrrh alone.