monastic estates in the middle byzantine period: evidence from cyprus

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Tassos Papacostas

Monastic Estates in the Middle Byzantine Period: Evidence from Cyprus for Local and Overseas Landowners

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Monastic Estates in the Middle Byzantine Period: Evidence from Cyprus for Local and Overseas Landowners

In the medieval period monasteries played an important role in the eco-nomic life of the Byzantine empire, based primarily on agriculture, like the economy of any pre-industrial society. These foundations developed into major landowners and agrarian units, best documented in the southern Bal-kans in middle and late Byzantine times principally through the abundant documentation surviving in the archives of the Athonite establishments. In fact this is the only type of property for which adequate information has survived from medieval Byzantium. The trend for increasingly exten-sive monastic estates is particularly noticeable from the eleventh century onwards and its repercussions were also felt in the building activity of the period.1 As Cyril Mango has observed, the eleventh century is precisely the time when sumptuous monastic churches are being put up across the empire (e.g. Hosios Loukas and Nea Moni), almost monopolizing investment in architectural projects.2

Large monasteries, especially those founded in Constantinople and the core provinces of the empire by aristocrats or with imperial patronage, were lib-erally endowed with land. A few well known examples will suffice to illus-trate the point and set the scene. The monastery of the Virgin Petritziotissa near Bačkovo (to the south of Philippopolis/Plovdiv in Bulgaria), founded by the prominent military official Gregory Pakourianos in the late eleventh century, was given no fewer than twenty-nine estates with arable land, pas-tures and vineyards, including twelve chōria (villages), nine agridia (fields), six kastra (fortresses), two proasteia (rural estates) and other, smaller, dependent monasteries.3 The Great Lavra on Mount Athos, founded in the

1 The standard work is now Smyrlis 2006; for monasticism during the Komnenian era, see Angold 1995, 265–382.

2 Mango 1980, 117–118, and Mango 1976a, 353–358.3 Gautier 1984, 35–45; Lemerle 1977, 181; Hendy 1985, 212–216; Smyrlis 2006, 83–84.

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mid-tenth century, owned over 47,000 modioi of land by the late elev-enth century;4 its properties increased further during the following century, encompassing small islands in the Aegean (Neoi, Gymnopelagesion) and numerous metochia (dependent monasteries), churches and kellia (monas-tic cells), both on the holy mountain and elsewhere in Macedonia.5 In the mid-eleventh century nearby Iveron held sixteen monasteries and metochia with their own properties, eleven proasteia, several church buildings, mills and vineyards on Athos, around Hierissos and Thessaloniki, all over the Chalkidiki and in the Strymon valley to the east; by the end of the century the monastery owned over 100,000 modioi of land.6 The properties given by Emperor John II Komnenos (1118–1143) to Pantokrator in Constantinople included twenty-four chōria, sixteen proasteia, estates and smaller monas-teries in almost every part of the empire (around the Sea of Marmara, in Thrace and Macedonia, in the Peloponnese and the Aegean).7 Pantokrator is an exceptional case, however, in that it was founded by the imperial family within the capital city in order to serve as their mausoleum. In the mid-twelfth century John’s brother Isaac founded his own monastery of Kosmo-soteira in Thrace, also in order to house his sepulchre, and granted it more than thirty estates and villages.8

These cases clearly illustrate the extraordinary flourishing of monastic real estate ownership during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The aim of this brief essay is to present and discuss some evidence from the same period but pertaining to the empire’s periphery, namely from Cyprus, far from the well documented Constantinopolitan and Athonite milieux. How do monastic properties there compare to the above examples and what can they tell us about less prominent and august establishments?

Local ownersSome twenty monasteries are securely attested in the written sources as functioning establishments on Cyprus from the period between its reintegra-tion within the Byzantine empire in 965 and the island’s conquest by Rich-ard Lionheart in 1191. If one takes into account the evidence from surviving

4 One modios corresponds very approximately to one tenth of a hectare (i.e. 1,000 m2); thus 1,000 modioi would be 1 km2 (ca. 250 acres), although in the sources the modios varies greatly between ca. 900 and 1,300 m2 (ODB, vol. 2, 1388).

5 Svoronos 1970 with table at pp. 73–74; Smyrlis 2006, 52–55.6 Lefort et al. 1985–1994, vol. 1, 70–91; Smyrlis 2006, 47–48.7 Gautier 1974, 115–125; Smyrlis 2006, 70–72.8 Harvey 1989, 71; Smyrlis 2006, 51–52.


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buildings that represent otherwise unattested foundations this number rises to almost thirty; adding likely but not certain cases takes this even higher up, to well over fifty monasteries (Fig. 1).9 These were not necessarily func-tioning all at the same time of course, and information on their longevity, properties and their history is extremely scarce.10 Needless to add that for the few monastic communities attested on Cyprus before the eleventh cen-tury there is not even the slightest amount of such information.11 On the other hand, extensive references to Cypriot monastic properties survive from the Venetian (1489–1571) and Ottoman periods (mainly eighteenth/nine-teenth century).12 As far as the Byzantine centuries are concerned, we are lucky to possess two rare documents regarding the properties of the Virgin of Krinia (Theotokos Krineōn/Kriniōtissa) near the north coast in the area of Lapithos, and the Cypriot properties of Saint Theodosios of Judea by the south-west littoral. Before looking at these exceptional cases, however, a survey of what we know about a few other Cypriot monasteries is in order.

9 Papacostas 1999, vol. 1, 105–123 and vol. 2, table 2.10 For two cases analyzed recently see Papacostas 2007, 29–83, and Grivaud 2012, 13–24.11 Papacostas 1999, vol. 1, 92–105.12 See for example Grivaud 1990, and Kyriazes 1950.

Fig. 1: Distribution map of monasteries.


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Saint John Chrysostom at Koutsovendis, founded in 1090 according to its surviving liturgical typikon, must have owned at least some vineyards, which in the 1150s were tended by the young Neophytos, a novice there and not yet a famous recluse. Koutsovendis must have owned the land sur-rounding the monastery (documented in the cases of Machairas and Krinia, as we shall see below), where its cemetery was situated, together with the chapel of the Theotokos; it possibly owned a metochion at some unspecified location, if the brebion surviving in an early fourteenth-century manuscript (Vatican, Palatinus gr. 367) indeed belongs to this establishment.13 Later on Neophytos, after moving away from Koutsovendis, mentions in his enco-mium of Saint Arkadios (written in ca. 1170–1190) certain miracles that happened in his days or shortly before in Arkadios’ monastery, in the hills to the east of Polis (ancient Arsinoe, whose bishop Arkadios had been). One concerns the diligent but greedy officials (a geōmetrēs and a zōometrēs) who went to measure the monastery’s land and count its animals (presum-ably cattle); they were of course duly punished by the patron saint for try-ing to cheat the innocent monks.14 At the same time Neophytos refused to acquire any property for his own monastery, the rock-cut Enkleistra, which he established near Paphos. Only after the Latin conquest (1191) did the monastery acquire a vineyard, some arable land and cattle, when its finan-cial situation deteriorated as a result of the influx of new recruits and the fleeing of its patrons who included members of the local aristocracy.15

Unlike Neophytos, the founders of Machairas in the eastern Troodos mountains were actively pursuing the enrichment of their establishment, travelling to Constantinople several times with rather rewarding results. According to the monastery’s early thirteenth-century typikon, sometime before 1172 Manuel Komnenos (1143–1180) offered the land surrounding the monastery and an annual grant of 50 gold pieces; Isaac II (1185–1195) granted an orchard from the crown domains in Nicosia and a tax exemption of 12 gold pieces, while Alexios III (1195–1203) exempted all the lands owned by the monastery and twenty-four of its tenant farmers (paroikoi) from all taxes, although by this time Cyprus was of course no longer ruled from Constantinople. Machairas also had metochia and proasteia with cat-tle, vineyards and other unspecified properties.16 The estates granted to the monastery of Kykko, founded in the late eleventh century with the help

13 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 102–103, Papacostas 2007, 86–87; for the brebion see now Bei-hammer 2007, 156.

14 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 86–87, with further bibliography; note that this applies to all subsequent references to this work: they pertain to catalogues which provide additional information and bibliographical references.

15 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 91–92.16 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 108–109.


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of Manuel Boutoumites (sent to quash the rebellion of Rhapsomates), are known through unverifiable sources of the Ottoman period, allegedly based on a lost document of 1422 that recounted the history of the monastery’s foundation as this was told to its author by monks who survived the fire of 1365 that left the monastery gutted:17 the alleged successor of Manuel Boutoumites, the doux George, endowed Kykko with the nearby villages of Mēlon and Mēlikourion (Mylikouri), and with Peristerona in the western Mesaoria, offering as a metochion the monastery of Saint George, which the doux had founded near Pentayia (bay of Morphou), together with fields and a water-mill.18

Not surprisingly, and in contrast to the Athonite or Constantinopolitan foundations mentioned above, there is no indication of the amount of land that these Cypriot monasteries owned, although Elisabeth Malamut has attempted to assess that of Machairas. Based on the tax exemption of 12 nomismata, rightly assuming that this concerned only part of the Machairas estates, and considering that at least during the second half of the eleventh century the rate of land-tax (epibolē) was approximately one nomisma for 200 modioi, Malamut concludes that Machairas must have owned at least ca. 2,400 modioi of land.19 Yet another indication of Machairas’ wealth is provided by its annual revenue, which in the opening years of the thirteenth century exceeded 1,200 nomismata, at a time when the annual tax yield of Cyprus (in the late twelfth century) is said to have amounted to ca. 50,000 nomismata.20 For more detailed information, however, we have to turn to the first of the two afore-mentioned rare cases, which, in the Cypriot con-text, remains exceptional in its itemized listing of named estates.

This is the monastery of the Virgin of Krinia/Krineōn in the Kyrenia (Pentadaktylos) mountains, whose date of foundation remains unknown. A register of this establishment’s possessions is to be found in a long note from a manuscript most probably copied in 1072/73 (Vatican, Barberini-

17 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 105–107.18 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 95–96, 147–148, 151–152; Constantinides 2002; see also Kyrris

2004, Georgiou 2007, 40–42, and Metcalf 2009, 322–323.19 Malamut 1988, vol. 2, 419; 200 modioi per nomisma was the average epibolē during the

second half of the eleventh century according to Svoronos, although it varied greatly according to the quality of land and the particular circumstances of the owner: for example, land on the Aegean island of Gymnopelagesion had a rate of 170 modioi per nomisma in the late tenth century; Lavra in 1088/89 had an epibolē of 535.5 and then 590 modioi per nomisma; in 1095 for the monastery of Esphigmenou it was 150: see Harvey 1989, 93–95, and Svoronos 1959, 130–133.

20 The nunnery dedicated to the Blachernitissa at Tamasos received 8% of Machairas’ reve-nue; 24 nomismata out of this amount were earmarked for the payment of the nunnery’s priests and, according to Cyril Mango, their salary represented no more than 1/4 of Blachernitissa’s budget: Tsiknopoullos 1969, 64, Mango 1980, 121. On the tax yield of Cyprus see Hendy 1985, 173 and 598; and Georgiou 2007, 62–63.


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anus Gr. 528).21 In the past Jean Darrouzès had ascribed the undated note to the fourteenth century, based on palaeographical considerations, although he realized that it was a copy of an earlier inventory reflecting the state of the properties during the pre-1191 period. Subsequently Paul Canart showed that the note is roughly contemporary with the manuscript itself.22 There is therefore no doubt that what we have here is a unique document regard-ing monastic properties on late eleventh-century Cyprus; indeed, the only detailed document on land-holdings and their fiscal charges from Byzantine Cyprus.23 A translation of this precious text is provided as an appendix at the end of this essay.

The ruins of Krinia’s dome-hall church, that may date to the middle Byz-antine period, still stand near the mountain pass leading from Lapithos on the north flank of the Kyrenia range to Larnakas tis Lapithou on its south-ern foothills.24 The wording of the first entry in the inventory implies that Krinia’s ktētor was probably a wealthy layman whose name, however, is not given (‘[...] two donation charters from the father of the ktētor of the mon-astery and from other brethren together with both a document and a chryso-bull’). The register contains seventeen more entries that state succinctly the type of property, its location and fiscal charge, mentioning its donation and/or purchase documents and often the water rights attached to each prop-erty.25 There was a metochion with its own land at nearby Margi, where the remains of a late eleventh or twelfth-century church of the domed octa-gon type were still visible at the beginning of the twentieth century.26 The remainder of the properties consisted of ten proasteia with two vineyards, an olive-grove, two orchards, some twenty fields, a warehouse and mills (presumably water-mills, since they are all situated near streams).27 These are mainly located in the area around the monastery, within the enoria of Lapithos in the western Pentadaktylos (Fig. 2), with the exception of some estates at Platanistia (in the region where, as we shall see below, the proper-ties of Saint Theodosios of Judea were located), at Paramytha and Limassol,

21 Constantinides – Browning 1993, 58–59; Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 103–104, 162–168 with commentary; see also Georgiou 2007, 43–44; and the discussion in Metcalf 2009, 519–520.

22 Darrouzès 1959, 47–51; Canart 1981, 27–29.23 See the pertinent remarks of Grivaud 1991, 117–119, and Grivaud 1998, 330.24 Hadjichristodoulou 2006, 116–119.25 On water management in medieval Byzantium see Gérolymatou 2005.26 Papacostas 1999, vol. 1, 153–159, vol. 2, 57; Hadjichristodoulou 2006, 380.27 Water-mills were in fact the type most widely used in Byzantium: Harvey 1989, 130–

133, and ODB vol. 2, 1374; on water-mills in the Ottoman period see Given 2000, and on monastic mills, Smyrlis 2006, 119, 187.


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all three on or near the south coast, and at Lythrodontas in the eastern foot-hills of the Troodos.

What the Krinia inventory fails to provide information about is the extent of its domains. As in the case of Machairas, Elisabeth Malamut has attempted to estimate this, based on the fiscal charge (dēmosion) of each property.28 Taking 67 argyria as the total of tax on land (apparently exclud-ing the estates with mills) and not distinguishing between argyria and nomismata (the dēmosion of some properties is given in nomismata), Malamut concludes that Krinia owned some 4,000 modioi. It is nevertheless clear from the registry that the mills were part of larger estates almost certainly with cultivated land, except perhaps from the mill-works at Potami. If we therefore take into account the dēmosion of the excluded properties, the total rises to 88 argyria (90 including Potami) or ca. 30 nomismata (one nomisma being equal to 3 argyria, at least in the twelfth century), which would give a total of the order of ca. 6,000 modioi of land (600 ha/1480 acres).29 It should be stressed that this is nevertheless a very approximate figure, the values of both the modios and the epibolē varying greatly, as noted above.

28 Malamut 1988, vol. 2, 418.29 These fiscal charges are given in tabulated form in Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 167–168.

Fig. 2: The properties of the monastery of the Theotokos Krineon/Krinia.


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Overseas ownersThe second and only other reasonably well documented portfolio of real estate on Byzantine Cyprus pertains to Saint Theodosios of Judea. The Cypriot estates of the ancient and revered Palestinian monastery are known through a papal privilege of 1216 that also enumerates its holdings else-where in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond (Palestine, Constantino-ple, Hungary). The dossier has been thoroughly discussed by Jean Richard, who identified the location of most of the Cypriot properties.30 These were mostly situated in the lower Ha-potami valley region, halfway between Limassol and Paphos, and were clearly acquired at some unknown date(s) before 1191.31 Although no indication of their size is given, they appear to have been rather extensive. Twenty-three entries are headed by the monas-tery of Saint Theodosios ‘de Acra’.32 Then follow ten church buildings with their dependencies, four villages, mills, vineyards, olive-groves, woods, fields, various estates and one fishery, all in the wider Ha-potami region (at Pissouri, Alektora and Palaipaphos, among others), whose ca. 10 km-long stretch of coast from Petra tou Romiou to Pissouri was also part of Saint Theodosios’ domains (Fig. 3).33

It is worth noting in this context that the toponym ‘Akra’ is recorded on a Roman (second-century) boundary stone found in 1910 in the for-est of Randi/Rantidi, to the north of Petra tou Romiou, and Terence Bruce Mitford tentatively situated Akra along the bay of Pissouri to the east of Cape Aspro.34 If the ancient toponym really refers to a coastal location and is related to the medieval ‘Acra’ attached to the name of Saint Theo-dosios’ monastery, then it may mark the easternmost limit of its holdings along the shore. It also raises the question of the location of the monas-tery itself, which Jean Richard identified with the site of a (post-medieval) church dedicated to Theodosios near Pano Archimandrita, at a considerable distance from the coast in the foothills overlooking the Ha-potami valley. Alternatively, and probably more likely, the appellation of the monastery (‘de Acra’) may merely reflect the importance of coastal Akra as the collec-tion centre for the produce of its agricultural estates and the main anchorage through which communications were carried out across the sea with Pales-

30 Richard 1986; for the text see now Schabel 2010, 180–181.31 Metcalf 2009, 546–549; Grivaud 1998, 331–332.32 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 123.33 Fisheries are also attested on Athos, where Iveron owned one at Kalamitzia, according

to a document of 1015 (Lefort et al. 1985–94, vol. 1, 74 and 220); the monastery of Kosmosoteira also had water rights along the Marica/Hebros river in Thrace for fishing purposes (Harvey 1989, 158–159).

34 Οὗτος ὅρος Ἄκρας: Mitford 1950, 64–66.


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tine and the mother-house.35 In other words, seen from the mainland, Akra was the entrance point into the Cypriot domain of the monastery. It is not known whether the latter owned sailing vessels for this purpose (and pos-sibly for trade), but in view of the evidence from the Athonite and other monasteries in this period, this is not unlikely.36

In addition to the above, the Palestinian establishment also owned an orchard in Limassol, land and olive-groves at nearby Polemidia, vineyards and land at Kissousa, a house with a vineyard to the west at Letymbou (Paphos region) and finally a church, a hospital, an orchard and land in Nic-osia (Fig. 3). Clearly Saint Theodosios’ estates were much more extensive than those of Krinia and, moreover, had an urban component in both the main port of the island and in its provincial capital (Limassol and Nicosia properties), necessary for the running of the monastery’s affairs.

Other great establishments outside the island also owned properties there, and although the relevant information is far less detailed, it is nev-ertheless tantalizing.37 The Holy Sepulchre and the patriarchs of Jerusa-

35 In this case the suggestion that ‘de Acra’ may refer to Acre in Palestine (Pringle 2009, 161) appears unlikely.

36 Examples and discussion in Smyrlis 2006, 106–112, 228–230.37 At some unspecified period the Great Lavra on Mount Athos owned a metochion on

Cyprus, dedicated to Saint Andronikos; it may be identical to a monastery at Meniko near Nicosia, first attested in the fifteenth century (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 84).

Fig. 3: The properties of the monastery of Saint Theodosios of Judea.


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lem maintained close ties with Cyprus even before the middle Byzantine period. According to Patriarch Eutychios of Alexandria (935–940), Patri-arch Thomas of Jerusalem (807–821) had requested timber from the island for repairs at the Holy Sepulchre, while a ninth-century painted inscrip-tion in the church of Kanakaria in north-eastern Cyprus, well known for its sixth-century apse mosaic, mentions the patriarch Solomon of Jerusalem (860–865).38 More frequent ties are recorded from the late eleventh century, when, threatened by the Muslim advance, Patriarch Symeon II fled to the island (1097?) where he probably resided until his death.39 During the same period the Cypriots are said to have contributed financially to the ransom demanded by the Saracens threatening to raze the Holy Sepulchre in the face of the Crusader armies’ advance towards the Holy City.40 After the lat-ter’s establishment in Palestine (1099) and the creation of a Latin patriar-chate in Jerusalem, Symeon’s immediate successors perhaps remained based on the island for a while before moving to Constantinople and one of them, John IX (fl. 1150s), possibly a Cypriot, started his career at the monastery of Koutsovendis.41

The properties of the Church of Jerusalem on the island, however, are not attested before the second half of the twelfth century and very little is actually known about them; they may have been acquired much earlier, prior to 1099.42 A certain Barnabas, monk and manager (megas oikonomos) of the patriarchate’s estates on Cyprus, is known from the colophon of a manuscript dated to ca. 1180 that was dedicated to him (Athens, Benaki Museum, Vitr. 34.3).43 More information is contained in the vita of Hegu-men Leontios of Saint John the Theologian at Patmos, who had declined Manuel Komnenos’ offer of the sees of Kiev and then of Cyprus in the 1170s before becoming patriarch of Jerusalem (1176–1185).44 On his way to his Latin-held see Leontios made a long stopover on Cyprus in early

38 Oberhummer 1903, 44; Coüasnon 1974, 19; and Metcalf 2009, 438–439, on the Sepulchre repairs. On the inscription see Megaw – Hawkins 1977, 147–149; and Ruggieri 1991, 268 note 361.

39 ODB vol. 3, 1982; Gautier 1971, 227–231; Pahlitzsch 2001, 79–83; Papacostas 2007, 49.40 Huygens 1986, vol. 1, 375; see also Wharton 1988, 55.41 Englezakis 1996, 27 and 149–152; Papacostas 2007, 50–51.42 More properties belonging to the Jerusalem patriarchate are recorded in later sources and

appear to have been acquired after 1191: the village of Pentaschoinon on the south coast and the estate of ‘Lacridon’ in the region of Paphos were granted in 1201 and 1210 respectively (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 144, 151); in the sixteenth century the village of ‘Iaille’ (Gialia) and a monastery of the Panagia together with its estates belonged to the patriarchate, while by the eighteenth century the monasteries of Koutsovendis, Saint George of Pyrgos, Saint George Oriates and perhaps the Apsinthiotissa were also part of its possessions (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 85, 95, 99; Papacostas 2007, 91–93).

43 Constantinides – Browning 1993, 87–88; Cutler – Carr 1976, 313–321.44 Angold 1995, 359–360; Tsougarakis 1993, 2–6; Pahlitzsch 2001, 150–181.


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1177, in order to look after the affairs of his patriarchate’s properties there. He first visited the local metochion (location unknown – Nicosia?) whose two remaining monks had taken wives.45 Then he found out that the estates under the supervision of the monk Hilarion had been plundered by the offi-cials in charge of taxation (a certain Kyriakos and his subordinate Triakon-taphyllos), while the young bishop Theodoulos of Amathus had appropriated the horses, oxen, mules and sheep belonging to the Church of Jerusalem.46 The involvement of the Amathus bishop may suggest that these properties were situated in the region of Limassol, a choice that would make perfect sense for contacts across the sea, considering that the coastal town was the main port of the island in this period. The patriarch put some order to his estates before sailing away and the culprits were of course punished accord-ingly by divine retribution.

The great pilgrimage and monastic centre of Saint Catherine’s on Mount Sinai also had some Cypriot properties, first attested, like those of Saint Theodosios, in the early thirteenth century (in 1217 and in more detail later on) but most probably dating from at least the previous century.47 The papal documents that contain this information, regrettably, do not specify either the extent or location of Sinai’s estates; they are merely described in stand-ard formulaic language as land, houses, prairies, vineyards and rights of use and pasture in forests and plains, roads and paths, water springs and mills.48 Confirmation of the long standing links between Sinai and Cyprus, that date back to Late Antiquity, may be provided by the world of icon and illuminated manuscript production:49 the style of a group of miniatures, icon panels and epistyle beams preserved at the monastery of Saint Catherine finds its closest parallels in the early twelfth-century fresco cycles of Cyprus (mainly Asinou and related works of art), and the panel paintings at least have been attributed to a Cypriot workshop active on Sinai during the first half of the twelfth century.50 Such artistic links may indeed reflect the assets held by Sinai on the island.

As mentioned above, the imperial foundations of Constantinople such as Pantokrator owned properties in various parts of the empire. Yet for Cyprus there is only one potential case of relevance. It concerns the monastery of

45 Papacostas 1999, 2:99.46 Tsougarakis 1993, 116–122; see also Chatzipsaltes 1954, 34–37.47 Richard 1986, 65–66; text now in Schabel 2010, 191–192 and 340.48 Coureas 1996, 476–477, suggests that most properties were acquired after 1217.49 A seventh-century inscription at Sinai (on Mount Moses) mentions the archbishop of

Cyprus Sergios (Ševčenko 1966, 264 no. 13), while the contemporary prolific author Anastasios of Sinai and his companion Stephen both hailed from Cyprus (Cameron 1992, 37–38; Flusin 1991, 391–396).

50 Weitzmann 1975; Weitzmann 1984, 65–67; Weitzmann – Galavaris 1990, 9–10.


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Saint George of Mangana outside Nicosia, first attested in 1231 and demol-ished during the building of the Venetian fortifications of the city in the sixteenth century.51 Despite the lack of corroborating evidence, its name strongly suggests that it was a metochion of its illustrious Constantinopo-litan namesake, founded at great expense by Constantine IX Monomachos (1042–1055). The Nicosia metochion must have been founded then either in the second half of the eleventh or during the twelfth century, its Constan-tinopolitan mother-house having passed to Latin hands after 1204. It is not clear when the Nicosia Mangana acquired its own properties, not attested before the early fourteenth century and located near the provincial capital, in the region of Limassol (vineyards) and in Armenian Cilicia (Saint George of Lambron).52 Most probably this happened during the first Lusignan cen-tury, especially as far as the Cilician property is concerned, when relations between the kingdoms of Cyprus and Armenia were particularly close.

OverviewThe picture of monastic properties that the evidence presented above pro-vides is neither complete nor is it clear. We are fortunate, however, in that the two main sources we possess concern the estates of establishments of a markedly different type, namely a purely local and not particularly promi-nent foundation (Krinia) and a large well known overseas monastery (Saint Theodosios). The latter’s domains are situated, as we have seen, in a wide area and include villages, several church buildings and urban properties, as would befit an important monastery and pilgrimage centre of Palestine. Sinai’s and the Holy Sepulchre’s estates must have been of a similar nature and perhaps even more extensive. Indeed, it has been plausibly suggested by Johannes Pahlitzsch that Cyprus hosted the bulk of the Jerusalem patri-archate’s properties in the Eastern Mediterranean.53 The same may apply to Saint Theodosios and to the patriarchate of Antioch, for which the evidence is nevertheless circumstantial and thus inconclusive.54 Cyprus was after all the closest Byzantine-held and Christian-controlled territory until the Cru-sader period. The evidence for these links with Sinai, Jerusalem, the Judean desert, and possibly Antioch, in conjunction with the dearth of similar infor-mation on the holdings of Constantinopolitan establishments on Cyprus, throws into sharp relief what the movement of monks and manuscripts,

51 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 93–94; Papacostas 2012, 94.52 Coureas 1994.53 Pahlitzsch 2001, 174.54 Papacostas 2007, 36–37.


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some aspects of the art and architecture, and the overall economic fortunes of Cyprus in this period strongly suggest: that the nearby Levantine regions played a crucial role in the development of the island while it was being ruled from faraway Constantinople.55

Krinia, attested in the sources only through its register (at least until the Venetian period) and thus suggesting together with the remains of its mod-est church that it was a rather ordinary establishment, owned properties as far away as the regions of Limassol and Paphos (ca. 80 km away, across the Troodos mountains). The majority, however, are concentrated around the monastery itself and consist mainly of agricultural land. Neilos of Machairas favoured such an arrangement for his monastery, since it allowed easy access to and supervision of the properties.56 This might not always be possible, depending on the monastery’s location. The high-altitude mountainous land around Machairas was suitable for a limited range of agricultural activities, like the cultivation of fruit trees and perhaps the vine on the south-facing slopes; it was definitely not the place to grow olive trees or to produce grain, however, for which the monastery presumably owned land in the plain below. The same applies to the other monasteries established in similar locations in the Troodos mountains (e.g. Kykko, Saint Nicholas of the Roof/Ayios Nikolaos tis Stegis, Lagoudera) and is confirmed by Kykko’s proper-ties in the lowlands (metochion, water-mill and land at Pentayia near the north coast).

One would wish to know more about monasteries such as Antiphōnētēs, Apsinthiōtissa, Asinou, or Hiereōn, all more prominent than Krinia if one is to judge from either their surviving middle Byzantine churches or the con-temporary written record.57 As far as the urban and suburban monasteries and their domains in the countryside are concerned, our sources leave us in the dark again. The monasteries of Nicosia, the provincial capital of Byzan-tine Cyprus (e.g. Megalē Monē and Pallouriōtissa), like their much larger and wealthier Constantinopolitan counterparts, must have lived largely on revenues from such possessions.58 Another category that is scarcely rep-resented in our sources is that of aristocratic foundations or those that enjoyed imperial and/or aristocratic patronage. The scanty evidence relat-ing to Kykko and Machairas, whose patrons included Alexios Komnenos and his grandson Manuel respectively, does not allow us to compare them

55 Papacostas 2007, 42, 79–83, 146–148.56 Tsiknopoullos 1969, 48.57 Hiereōn in fact had a metochion at a location called Saria and another one in Nicosia,

attested in 1264 and 1308 respectively (Darrouzès 1951, 28 and 31); it is not known whether these were acquired before or after the end of Byzantine rule.

58 Papacostas 2012, 96.


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with either Krinia or Saint Theodosios.59 Likewise, we do not know whether Eumathios Philokales, the patron of Koutsovendis’ north chapel (Holy Trin-ity) built and decorated in ca. 1100, endowed the monastery with any land.60 Nor do we know anything about the application in Cyprus of one of the most important practices in the medieval Byzantine monastic world (espe-cially during the eleventh century), namely the charistikē, which allowed a private individual to supervise and manage a monastery together with all its properties and enjoy the surplus of its produce, a frequently lucrative affair.61

The proportion of land in monastic hands and the extent of Cypriot monastic properties, as everywhere in the empire, are both difficult to gauge with only a few figures available. Obviously and unsurprisingly the 6,000 modioi of Krinia (however approximate and inaccurate this figure may be) seem insignificant compared to the 100,000 modioi of Iveron, but still give us a measure of this monastery’s possessions. Krinia amassed its real estate from various sources. A chrysobull mentioned in the registry suggests some imperial privilege or endowment. The bequest of property to a monastery after the owner’s death and gifts by new recruits upon their admission were also important sources of property, implied in the text of Krinia’s inven-tory and frequently encountered during the middle Byzantine period; and this, despite late eleventh-century founders in other parts of the empire, like Michael Attaleiates and the afore-mentioned Gregory Pakourianos, disap-proving of such monks’ gifts and solicitation of endowments.62 A similar pattern must have certainly prevailed in the case of other monastic proper-ties. There is for example no reason to believe that the numerous acts of donation by both local villagers and the ruling class (including the royal family) to the monastery of Hiereōn in the western Troodos during the Lusignan period, recorded in marginal notes from a twelfth-century man-uscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, gr. 1588), do not reflect practices inherited from the Byzantine period, when the monastery is known to have been active.63

The core of Krinia’s possessions was formed by the original endowment of the founder and his father. The monastery apparently pursued a sustained policy of purchasing property, presumably in order to augment donation

59 Robin Cormack has suggested that the workshop that decorated Philokales’ chapel at Koutsovendis may have been initially brought to Cyprus in order to carry out Alexios Komnenos’ commission at Kykko (Cormack 1984, 164).

60 Papacostas 2007, 72–76.61 Thomas 1987, 157; it has been suggested, however, that most monasteries in Byzantine

Cyprus were established in accordance with this institution: Mango 1976b, 8.62 Thomas 1987, 144–148, 183, 222; Smyrlis 2006, 132–154.63 Darrouzès 1951; Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 97–98.


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estates and render them more profitable. Eight out of eighteen entries in the inventory concern estates acquired by a combination of donation and purchase, as was indeed typical of the average Byzantine monastery during this period.64 Krinia also invested in a warehouse and two mills that were built on land bought by or granted to the community. Monasteries build-ing mills are documented elsewhere in the empire (e.g. Pantokrator), and Krinia’s were rented out, in the same way that Kosmosoteira in Thrace, for example, rented out its bath as a business venture.65 The overwhelmingly agricultural character of Krinia’s economic activities is paralleled by those of Machairas in the late twelfth century: according to Cyril Mango, ‘it may be doubted if there existed in Cyprus at the time a more efficiently organ-ized agricultural enterprise’.66 The Machairas administration included sev-eral offices whose holders’ primary task was to look after the monastery’s various interests, following meticulously set regulations about the running of its proasteia and metochia. The bitter remarks of Eustathios of Thessa-lonike (ca. 1115–1195/96) that monasteries were concerned with nothing but the maximisation of their profits seem to be corroborated by our evidence.67

Not surprisingly, the Cypriot examples confirm most trends observed elsewhere in the empire in this period. Encounters with tax officials were rarely uneventful, as the incidents at Saint Arkadios and the Holy Sepul-chre’s estates show. Properties were principally rural with an agricultural vocation. Time and again in the sources pertaining to both Cyprus and Athos we come across vineyards, fields, mills, orchards and olive groves as the main types of property. Monastic establishments acquired an increas-ingly important economic role through the exploitation of these estates and through their consequent development into major agricultural enterprises.68 The long-held assumption that agriculture declined as a result of the growth of large estates such as those owned by monasteries has been overturned and it is now widely admitted that, on the contrary, this trend led to the extension and intensification of agricultural productivity.69 These develop-ments had a certain impact on building activity, for even if no patronage was readily available, excess revenue from the produce of a monastery’s

64 Angold 1995, 322, where Theotokos Skoteine near Philadelphia is cited as an example; Smyrlis 2006, 146–151.

65 Harvey 1989, 131; Kaplan 1992, 53–55; Angold 1995, 313; Smyrlis 2006, 187; for the agricultural and commercial activities of the Athonite monasteries, see also Harvey 1996, 93–95.

66 Mango 1980, 121–122.67 Angold 1995, 348–355.68 Morris 1995, 200–240.69 Magdalino 1993, 161; Harvey 1989, 160–161; Smyrlis 2006, 245–247.


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estates could be used to finance its building programme.70 This state of affairs provides a framework within which the construction of the numer-ous churches surviving on Cyprus from this period may be placed. Among well over one hundred identified monuments, a large proportion (between ca. 20% and 40%) appear to have been attached to monastic foundations.71

Neophytos the Recluse, disapproving of property ownership but at the same time having in mind the costly construction of a projected church dedicated to the Holy Trinity, wisely authorized his community to accept imperial or aristocratic gifts of money if and when these came, for this specific purpose; at the same time he forbade his monks to solicit dona-tions from the public for the new church. Neilos of Machairas, on the other hand, makes it clear that it was only after receiving such donations that he was able to build and decorate his monastery’s church and to construct a refectory and cells.72 Michael Attaleiates in eleventh-century Constantin-ople stipulated that half the surplus revenue from the lands belonging to the ptōchotropheion (poorhouse) and the monastery he founded should be used for the maintenance of their properties and buildings.73 In the same period Kekaumenos also links building expenditure to revenue from prop-erties used for agricultural purposes, advising those with limited means to invest first in viticulture and the cultivation of land, before undertaking any construction work.74 In middle Byzantine monasteries real estate owner-ship clearly produced revenue in excess of what was necessary for the com-munity’s maintenance and charitable work. The resulting additional funds were at least partly invested in the construction of new, sometimes ostenta-tious buildings. This is only one among many implications of the evidence presented in this essay, yet one that is still highly visible in the Byzantine chapels of the Cypriot countryside.

70 Smyrlis 2006, 240.71 Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, table 1.72 Tsiknopoullos 1969, 14, 90; Neophytos’ wish probably never materialized (a new church

was built at the Enkleistra only in the opening years of the sixteenth century), while Neilos’ buildings at Machairas have long disappeared.

73 Harvey 1989, 189.74 Spadaro 1998, 170.


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AppendixThe inventory of the properties of Krinia[translation of the text on f. 192r.–v. of the Vat. Barb. gr. 527, as edited in Darrouzès 1959, 47–49, and reproduced in Constantinides – Browning 1993, 58–59]

These are the proasteia of the monastery [of] the all-holy Theotokos of Krineōn:1. This holy monastery as it survives, is situated with both its mountain

and its field at the chōrion Lithiko and [it has] a right of three hours’ use of water; it also has a dēmosion [of] six argyria and two donation charters from the father of the ktētor of the monastery and from other brethren together with both a document and a chrysobull; and in the same manner [it owns] the metochion Margē as it is preserved and [this] has a dēmosion [of] 12 argyria and purchase and donation charters and symbibaseis 1 and 4 [?] and three documents.

2. There is also a proasteion, that is a vineyard, at the enōria of Kourion [at the] chōrion Paramēda with all its possessions and it has a dēmosion [of] 11 argyria and three purchase and donation charters and two docu-ments and other fields [with] a dēmosion [of] 12 argyria [and a] cross-signed certificate with water [rights] too for the holder.

3. And in the enōria of Nemesos, an olive-grove and they have a dēmosion of 3 argyria and two purchase charters.

4. And another proasteion, Pladatē, of the enōria of Lapithos, with all its possessions and distribution of water for the holder, having a dēmosion [of] 7 argyria and a donation charter with a diatypōsis and a document.

5. And another orchard down at the public [road] having a dēmosion [of] 1 argy rion and two charters, [one of] purchase and [the other of] donation.

6. And a field at Koskinēzousa and [this] has a dēmosion of one eulogia, that is a prosphora for Maundy Thursday, having a purchase charter.

7. And at the spring of Nikodēmos, a right of six hours’ use of water; and it has a dēmosion [of one] eulogia and a donation charter.

8. And another proasteion [at the] chōrion Thrinea with all its possessions and a right of use of water for the holder, having a dēmosion [of] six argyria and two charters, [one of] purchase and [the other of] donation.


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9. Another proasteion at the chōrion Lithiko, having 15 large [and] small fields and orchards together with the field of the metochion of the mon-astery and water supply [for] 1 hour, having a dēmosion [of] 1 argyrion and 13 eulogiai and 12 sale contracts and donation charters.

10. Another proasteion at the chōrion Kalaphatēs with all its possessions and water supply for the holder, having a dēmosion [of] 4 argyria and two eulogiai and five purchase and donation charters.

11. And at the spring at the chōrion Potami, a place for mill-works, having a dēmosion of two argyria; and a mill was built and [the monastery] receives its rent, having 3 charters [of] purchase and documents.

12. And at the river Philokomos, a field and a place for a mill and it has a dēmosion [of one] eulogia and a donation charter and a document and a mill was built and [the monastery] receives its rent.

13. And at the chōrion Kampylē, a vineyard having a dēmosion [of] two argyria and a purchase charter and a document.

14. And at the chōrion Myrtou, a proasteion with all its possessions and a right of use of water for the holder, having a dēmosion [of] 12 argyria and a donation charter with a diatypōsis.

15. And another proasteion at the chōrion Larnaka with all its possessions and a right of use of water for the holder, having a dēmosion of two argyria and a donation charter.

16. And at the chōrion Lethrinounta of the enōria of Kition, there is space and a warehouse was built, having a dēmosion [of one] eulogia and a donation charter.

17. And in the enōria of Paphos, a proasteion, Lower Platanistos, with all its possessions and a mill and river water, having a dēmosion [of] 1 nomisma and the rent of the mill and two charters, [one of] donation offering and [the other of] purchase, the so-called ‘of Kyrykos’.

18. And another proasteion, Upper Platanēstos, with all its possessions and a mill and river water, having a dēmosion [of] two nomismata and the rent of the mill and two charters, [one of] donation and [the other of] purchase, and a cross-signed certificate with two documents [and?] charters.


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Glossary – Commentary (the numbers refer to inventory entries)1: Lithiko: unidentified village near the monastery (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2,

146); dēmosion: fiscal charge, basic land-tax; metochion at Margē iden-tified with no longer surviving Byzantine church at Margi near Myrtou; argyrion: one third of a nomisma (in the twelfth century); symbibasis: agreement.

2: enoria: diocese or sometimes fiscal unit (Malamut 1988, vol. 2, 417 note 229; Svoronos 1959, 55–57); Paramēda: modern village of Paramy-tha (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 150).

3: Nemesos: late antique Neapolis / medieval and modern Limassol.

4: Pladatē: unidentified (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 153); diatypōsis: testa-mentary disposition, will.

6: Koskinēzousa: unidentified, presumably in Lapithos area (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 144); eulogia: oblation replacing fiscal charge; prosphora: similar meaning to eulogia, oblation.

7: Spring of Nikodēmos: micro-toponym preserved into modern times in the Lapithos area (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 166).

8: Thrinea: unidentified, presumably in the Lapithos area (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 157).

10: Kalaphatēs: identified with Kalapakki near Pyleri (Grivaud 1998, 175–176; Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 143).

11: Potami: unidentified, although two such toponyms exist in the territories of nearby Myrtou and Diorios (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 154).

12: Philokomos: unidentified stream, presumably near the monastery.

13: Kampylē: modern village of Kampyli (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 143).

14: Myrtou: modern village of Myrtou (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 149).

15: Larnaka: modern village of Larnakas tis Lapithou (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 145).

16: Lethrinounta in enoria of Kition: perhaps modern village of Lythrodon-tas in the eastern Troodos foothills (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 145).

17: Kato (Lower) Platanistos / 18. Pano (Upper) Platanistos in enoria of Paphos: presumably modern Platanistia north of Pissouri (Papacostas 1999, vol. 2, 153).


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Weitzmann 1975 = Kurt Weitzmann, ‘A Group of Early Twelfth Century Sinai Icons Attributed to Cyprus’, in: Giles Robertson – George Henderson (eds.), Studies in Memory of David Talbot Rice (Edinburgh 1975) 47–63.

Weitzmann 1984 = Kurt Weitzmann, ‘Icon Programmes of the 12th and 13th Cen-turies at Sinai’, in: Δελτίον τῆς Χριστιανικῆς Ἀρχαιολογικῆς Ἑταιρείας 12, 1984, 63–116.

Weitzmann – Galavaris 1990 = Kurt Weitzmann – George Galavaris, The Monastery of Saint Catherine at Mount Sinai. The Illuminated Greek Manuscripts, vol 1: From the Ninth to the Twelfth century (Princeton 1990).

Wharton 1988 = Annabel Jane Wharton, Art of Empire. Painting and Architecture of the Byzantine Periphery. A Comparative Study of Four Provinces (Uni-versity Park/Pennsylvania – London 1988).

Photo creditsFigs. 1–3: Tassos Papacostas.

Tassos PapacostasCentre for Hellenic Studies, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS (United Kingdom)[email protected]


monastic estates in the middle byzantine period: evidence from cyprus

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