The chapel of Profitis Ilias is found in the most privileged location of the small settlement “Profitis Ilias” that belongs to the village of Sykopetra in the District of Limassol.
The chapel was constructed by a resident of the village Sykopetra after he found an icon of the Prophet on the riverbed found in the area. He was grazing his sheep when some of them descended from the slope where he was surveilling them, to the riverbed looking for water. Time went by but the sheep did not come back. The shepherd descended to the riverbed too, where he found his sheep, but at the spot where they were grazing, he found the icon under a rock.
He gathered his sheep and returned to the village. That same night he had the icon in his mind and its finding was torturing him. The next day he sold part of his flock and with the money he got, he built a small chapel, after he searched to find the best location for it, just as it befitted the Prophet. He built the chapel as well as his own house on the plateau found on the slope of the mountain peak of Papoutsa, where there was an unobstructed view for a distance of many kilometres and it dominated the valley of the Amathos river.
The example of the shepherd was followed by other members of the same family, thus in a few years the small settlement was created. As the settlement grew bigger, the chapel seemed smaller. Thus, it has been extended as time went by.
It is a very beautiful construction, built out of stone coming from the area. It has the form of a Basilica and it has a gabled, vaulted roof. The belfry is found next to the semicircle formed by the narthex, and it is probable that it was the angle of the northern wall with the narthex, before the chapel was extended.
Even though the construction was built with great workmanship at its most, the security (?) exit door is a dissonance, since, whichever its reason of existence is, it does not stop from being something that does not match at all with the Church.
