Salonika - Thessaloniki - Greece: Byzantine Churches

Salonika - Thessaloniki - Greece: Byzantine Churches

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Founded in 315 BC a provincial capital and sea port of Salonika became one of the first centres for the spread of Christianity. Among its Christian monuments one can find representatives of all the Byzantine architectural styles. Constructed over a long period, from the 4th to the 15th century, they constitute an encyclopaedia in stone, which had considerable influence in the Byzantine world. For that reason, the paleo-Christian and Byzantine monuments of Salonika have been added in 1988 to the list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The St.Demetrius (Agios Demetrios) church is dedicated to the patron saint of Salonika. It was built in the first half of the 5th century AD on the spot where used to be a Roman bath, the place in which the saint made a martyr of himself. The church was burnt down twice: in 629 or 634 and again in the great fire of 1917. In 1492 it was converted into a mosque named Kasimiye Mosque.

Restoration of the church after the fire was undertaken in 1926 and was completed in 1948. Nowadays the monument is a five-aisled basilica, with a narthex and a transept. Under the sanctuary there is a crypt, which formerly contained the baths. A chapel of St.Euthymios is attached to the south-east corner of the church. Very few fragments of the sculptural and pictorial (mosaics, wall paintings) decoration of the church survived the

disastrous fire of 1917, but they are representative of the successive phases of the monument's history. In the crypt of St.Demetrius church an exhibition is on display to the public. It includes the items that survived the fire of 1917, and those that were brought to light by the recent excavations in the monument.

The metropolitan Holy Wisdom (Agia Sophia) churchwas built in the 5th century AD, after the period of debate between those who were for and those who were against worshipping the icons. Primarily the church was a round basilica covered with a dome. The present architectural form of the monument is in many aspects, quite different from the original 5th century structure.

In the 7th century it was turned into a rectangular church, with a cross-in-square nucleus, which is covered with a dome. A long period passed since the Turks captured Salonika in 1430, when the church was transformed into a mosque, probably in 1524. In 1912, after the liberation of the city, it was restored to the Christian worship. Agia Sophia has become the nucleus of a large building complex,

with administrative and religious functions. It is surrounded by a U-shaped ambulatory on the three sides, while the east is occupied by the tripartite sanctuary.Several parts of the interior pictorial decoration are preserved: mosaics on the dome and the sanctuary, dated to the 8th to 12th centuries, and wall paintings of the 11th century, in the narthex. What dominates the dome is the marvellous mosaic of Christ's Ascension, while over the temple there is one more mosaic depicting the Virgin Mary with Jesus Christ in her arms. The church was burnt down in 1890 and was repaired between 1907 and 1909. Excavations were conducted in 1936-1940, 1946, 1948, 1961, and after 1978, during the restoration of the building, which was damaged by an earthquake. In 1961, the wall paintings of the narthex were uncovered and cleaned after the Turkish plaster was removed.

The church of Our Lady of Coppersmiths (Panaghia Chalkeon) church is located in the centre of the city, next to Egnatia Road (Odos Egnatia). It is a cross-in-square type with an eight-sided dome. The dome is supported by four columns and four arches that form a cross inscribed in the square area. Smaller domes cover two ends of the narthex.Two successive layers of wall paintings

are distinguished in the church, dated to the 11th and the 14th century respectively. In the north part of the interior of the church there is the tomb of protospatharios (a Byzantine official) Christophoros, who built the church in 1028, as attested by the inscription on marble over the main entrance. After the conquest of Salonika by the Turks in 1430, it was converted into a mosque named Kazantzilar Mosque, because it was close to the coppersmiths' forges (kazantzidika) of Salonika. It became a Christian church again after the liberation of the city in 1912. In 1934 a great amount of soil covering half of the church, accumulated during the Turkish domination due to the neglect, was cleared away. The building was damaged by the earthquakes in 1932 and 1978, and was subsequently restored and cleaned from the Turkish plaster that covered the wall paintings. In 1987, in the course of a study on the structural stability of the building, several excavation trenches were opened in the courtyard of the church.

The church of St.Nicholas (Agios Nikolaos) is located in the castle, in the upper part of the city (Anopolis), dated to the early 14th century. This church used to be the main church (katholikon) of a monastery, dated to the early 14th century. The name is believed to be related to the founder of the monastery, Nicholas Skouterios Orphanos. In the following years it was named Agios Nikolaos

Orphanos. According to another version, it was founded by the Serbian king Milutin. The church is one of the few churches of Salonika, which was not converted into a mosque. The Turks used to call it Poor Saint Nicholas. It is characterized by its own style. It is a timber-roofed chamber with a U-shaped roof and a П-shaped arcade, which surrounds it. The marble iconostas is preserved almost intact as well as a considerable amount of the painted decorations, which has been dated to 1310-1320 and are of a very high aristic quality. Nowadays Agios Nikolaos is a dependence (metochion) of the Vlatades Monastery. Excavations on the interior of the church were conducted in 1959-1960 and 1971.

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