Stavrovouni Monastery

 church, monastery

Stavrovouni is a hill in Cyprus, on top of which stands a Greek Orthodox Monastery. The monastery Stavrovouni which was constructed on the peak of the mountain of the same name in the District of Larnaca. In earlier times it had been known under the name of Olympus , nowadays , the highest point of Troodos Mountains further to the west bears that name . Stavrovouni , as the name already says , is dedicated to the Holy Cross ; it can be derived from two words 'stavros '(cross) and 'vouno' (mountain) . According to religious tradition , the monastery was founded by St. Helena, the mother of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine I, the Great. According to the 15th century Cypriot chronicler Leontios Makhairas , Helena had discovered the three crosses on which Jesus and the two thieves had been crucified on her pilgrimage to the Holy Land. She had them excavated and wanted to bring them to Constantinople. But she is said to have left one of these crosses in Cyprus during an involuntary visit caused by shipwreck , and to have presented it to a monastery. Thus the legend.
www.fototravel.info/cyprus
www.kypros.org/Sxetikos/Monastiria/StavrovouniE-1.htm