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Panagia Eleousa church dates to the 16th century, and is two aisled, rather than the three which would be more normal for the style of the time. The aisles end in a pair of cylindrical apses. Outside the church are the remains of the monastery which this church once served.
The two aisles are separated by a double archway, with the northern aisle being much smaller than the southern one. This difference in size can also be noticed from the outside in the different dimensions of the windows at the eastern end. The whole of the western end is a later addition, and the join can be seen both externally and internally.
The main door of the church shows Lusignan influences, which explains the lopsided nature of the church. The French Lusignans were Latin Christians, and while not actually banning Orthodox Christianity, treated it as second class. There are other examples in the Middle East where the ruling classes reluctantly allowed the peasants space to worship in their churches. To remind them of their place, the space allocated to the Orthodox Christians was much smaller than that allocated to the Latin Christians.
Although disused, the church continues to be a place of pilgrimage by Orthodox visitors, and it is unusual to visit and not see a lit candle.
References:The Broch of Gurness is an Iron Age broch village. Settlement here began sometime between 500 and 200 BC. At the centre of the settlement is a stone tower or broch, which once probably reached a height of around 10 metres. Its interior is divided into sections by upright slabs. The tower features two skins of drystone walls, with stone-floored galleries in between. These are accessed by steps. Stone ledges suggest that there was once an upper storey with a timber floor. The roof would have been thatched, surrounded by a wall walk linked by stairs to the ground floor. The broch features two hearths and a subterranean stone cistern with steps leading down into it. It is thought to have some religious significance, relating to an Iron Age cult of the underground.
The remains of the central tower are up to 3.6 metres high, and the stone walls are up to 4.1 metres thick. The tower was likely inhabited by the principal family or clan of the area but also served as a last resort for the village in case of an attack.
The broch continued to be inhabited while it began to collapse and the original structures were altered. The cistern was filled in and the interior was repartitioned. The ruin visible today reflects this secondary phase of the broch's use.
The site is surrounded by three ditches cut out of the rock with stone ramparts, encircling an area of around 45 metres diameter. The remains of numerous small stone dwellings with small yards and sheds can be found between the inner ditch and the tower. These were built after the tower, but were a part of the settlement's initial conception. A 'main street' connects the outer entrance to the broch. The settlement is the best-preserved of all broch villages.
Pieces of a Roman amphora dating to before 60 AD were found here, lending weight to the record that a 'King of Orkney' submitted to Emperor Claudius at Colchester in 43 AD.
At some point after 100 AD the broch was abandoned and the ditches filled in. It is thought that settlement at the broch continued into the 5th century AD, the period known as Pictish times. By that time the broch was not used anymore and some of its stones were reused to build smaller dwellings on top of the earlier buildings. Until about the 8th century, the site was just a single farmstead.
In the 9th century, a Norse woman was buried at the site in a stone-lined grave with two bronze brooches and a sickle and knife made from iron. Other finds suggest that Norse men were buried here too.