Qualla: Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca

Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca: Introduction

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Qasinka, CC0. Lazarus, four days dead, friend of Christ. That was the inscription, in Greek, on the marble sarcophagus discovered in Larnaca in the year 890. Eight hundred and sixty years had passed since the resurrection in Bethany, and the second tomb of Lazarus, the man Jesus raised from the dead in the Gospel of John, had been hidden by centuries of Arab raids on the Cypriot coast. Now it was found again. The Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise heard the news and made two decisions. First, he had Lazarus's relics shipped from Larnaca to Constantinople in 898, where they joined the great collection of holy relics in the imperial capital. Second, by way of recompense to the bereaved Cypriots, he ordered a church built directly over the empty second tomb. The Church of Saint Lazarus rose in the late 9th and early 10th centuries on the spot where the inscription had been read.

Image: Qasinka | CC0

Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca: Two Tombs, Two Resurrections

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris06, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Lazarus of the New Testament has two tombs because, by Eastern Orthodox tradition, he died twice. The first death is the famous one. Jesus arrives at Bethany after Lazarus has been buried for four days, asks where he has been laid, and calls him out of the tomb in front of hi...

Image: Chris06 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca: The Architecture Beneath the Domes

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit A.Savin, FAL. The 9th-century basilica is built of squared limestone blocks, each roughly a meter thick. The interior divides into three aisles, separated by bulky double pillars with arched openings cut through them. Originally three domes rose above the central aisle. Semi-cylindrical roofs ...

Image: A.Savin | FAL

Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca: Mosque, Then Church Again, Then Both

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Hannes Grobe/BHV, CC BY 3.0. When the Ottomans took Cyprus from Venice in 1571, the three imposing domes of Saint Lazarus and the original bell tower were destroyed, almost certainly during the early years of Ottoman rule, and the church was converted into a mosque. The conversion did not last long. In 1589,...

Image: Hannes Grobe/BHV | CC BY 3.0

Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca: The Iconostasis That Burned

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY 2.0. The masterwork of the church is its iconostasis, the carved screen that separates the nave from the sanctuary. Between 1773 and 1782, the woodcarver Chatzisavvas Taliadorou produced one of the most ambitious Baroque iconostases in the Greek Orthodox world. From 1793 to 1797, the ...

Image: Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium | CC BY 2.0

Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca: What Stayed Behind

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Héctor Ochoa "Robot8A", CC BY-SA 4.0. On 2 November 1972, during the post-fire renovations, workers lifted a section of flooring beneath the altar and discovered a marble sarcophagus containing human remains. The bones were identified as part of the relics of Saint Lazarus himself. Apparently, when Emperor Leo VI's o...

Image: Héctor Ochoa "Robot8A" | CC BY-SA 4.0