Halfway along the road leading from the village of Sia to Mathiatis, on the left, there is an earthen road which leads to a small hill where the ruins of an ancient byzantine chapel dedicated to Agios Eftychios stand. 

Its architecture and thick ancient walls reveal that during its glory days the church was an imposing building. It also resembles the ruined church of Saint Ilarionas Neos at the fortress of Agios Ilarionas in Pentadaktylos. Its architecture and mainly the mixture of the materials used by the builders of these two churches are almost identical, except for the fact that the church of Saint Eftychios is smaller.  

Saint Eftychios, as this is mentioned by chronicler Archimandrite Kyprianos in the “Chronological History of the Island of Cyprus” (1788), was one of the “foreign Saints who settled on the Island” (one of the 300 Alamans who found refuge in Cyprus after being persecuted by the Palestinians in the 11^th century A.D.) and chose to perform his ascetic duties on the borders of Lythrodontas, along with his fellow anchorites Josef, Thelthan, Frasin and John.

Saint Eftychios performed his ascetic duties in Mathiatis and along with other monks they built a small monastery dedicated to Agios Eftychios. When the Turks occupied Cyprus in 1571 A.D., they killed the monks, ruined their cells and left the chapel of Agios Eftychios deserted.

Kyriakos Shieggerleggos, a resident of Mathiatis, looking into the ruins of the church decades ago, found an icon of Agios Eftychios and kept it. This icon was passed on from generation to generation and today it is kept in the church of Apostle Varnavas.

Presently, the chapel of Agios Eftychios is being restored by the Community with the help of the Department of Antiquities.

Source: Kyriakos Vorkas, Honorary President of the Church Committee of Apostle Varnavas