The church of Timios Stavros tou Agiasmati is loctaed in the eastern part of the Troodos mountains and particularly in the area of Pitsilia. It's only a few kilometers distance from the village of  Platanistasa. It was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985.

This church dates from the end of the 15th century and is the sole remnant from a Medieval monastery. The name 'Agiasmati' probably derives from the word 'Agiasma', meaning sanctified water spring. Another suggestion points to the site of Agiasmati in western Asia Minor, linking the Troodos monastery to refugees who sought shelter in Cyprus after the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453.  

The church is a single-aisled building covered with a steep-pitched timber roof bearing flat ceramic tiles. The roof extends beyond the main structure to provide cover to a portico enveloping the building on all four sides. An inscription on the exterior north wall above the entrance, celebrates its patron, the priest Petros Peratis and his wife Pepani. Both of them are represented on a wall-painting on the south exterior wall, offering a model of the church to Jesus with the mediation of the Virgin. It is generally accepted that the church was built and decorated in 1494. 

The interior of the church is covered with colofull wall paintings. Stylistically, they combine Palaiologan stylistic details with Italian influences executed by the local artist Philippos Goul, also active in other monuments in the region. Wall paintings also survive on the external face of the west and south walls, with the impressive Last Judgement scene being an important highlight. 

A. Stylianou and J. Stylianou, Painted Churches of Cyprus: Treasures of Byzantine Art (London: Trigraph, 1985)

C. Argyrou and D. Myrianthefs, The Church of the Holy Cross of Ayiasmati (Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and Holy Metropolis of Morphou, 2006)

Department of Antiquities Cyprus, Church of Timios Stavros (Holy Cross) tou Agiasmati, Platanistasa