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The Ayia Napa Cathedral is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and according to tradition it was named after a picture of Virgin Mary found in a valley. Napa in Latin means forest. According to another version the Cathedral of Ayia Nape was named after a temple built during the Frankish period and dedicated to the Holy Martyr of Saint-Germain, known as Saint Nape.

The Cathedral was built in the late 19th – early 20th century on the ruins of an older and smaller Byzantine church and is a unique architectural structure with elements of traditional Byzantine architecture. The present church – which was completed in 1906 – is three-aisles, with a marble iconoclastic and frescoes mainly on the dome, and contains a silver-covered icon of Ayia Napa.