Byzantine Fresco Chapel - Farewell to the Frescoes - After 15 Years in the United States, March 4, 2012 is Closing Day

On the Menil Campus is the Byzantine Fresco Chapel. Like the rest of the collection, admission is free to everyone. The Chapel was built to house the Byzantine frescoes from Lysi, Cyprus and opened in 1997. In the 1980s, looters took them from a chapel in Cyprus and smuggled the fragments off the island. Dominique de Menil rescued the frescoes and funded a two year restoration.

The agreement between the Menil and the Orthodox Church of Cyprus was to allow the frescoes to be in the Byzantine Fresco Chapel for 15 years. One March 4, 2012, the chapel will close the the frescos will return to Cyprus.

To celebrate the frescoes, the Menil invites the public to programs on February 12th and 19th, 2012.

Chant •Sonata •Duet
Music for The Byzantine Fresco Chapel
Sunday, February 12, 2012
5:30 p.m. Prelude (Optional). Walk from the Menil Collection to the Byzantine Fresco Chapel
6:00 p.m. Musical performance inside the Byzantine Fresco Chapel

Constructions of Art & Faith
The Byzantine Fresco Chapel and the Menil Collection
Sunday, February 19, 2012, 7:00 p.m.

The Byzantine Chapel is located at 4011 Yupon Street at Branard Street. It is open 11 a.m.– 6 p.m., Wednesday–Sunday. It is small, quiet and free. You can bring kids, and if they make noise, you can quickly get them outside. February is the last chance to enjoy these frescoes before they return to Cypress, so go check them out.