top of page

   The iconography of the Katholikon generally follows the austere style of Constantinople with ascetic tendencies, sometimes even illuminated by a distant reflection of the Palaeologian art.
   The iconography of the church may have been completed between 1703 and 1722 by trainee artists Panos and Christos whose surnames and origins are unknown, but whose first names are mentioned in the Holy Prothesis.
   The Platytera (Our Lady of the Sign) with infant Christ blessing on the central apse above the altar is among the best  preserved icons of the Holy Bema (sanctuary). The dome above the sanctuary is adorned with vivid scenes from the Divine Liturgy.
   The Communion of the Apostles is depicted on a separate row below the Platytera while the lower level of the apse displays full-length figures of the co-officiating Church Fathers.
  The overall iconographic programme and its study has liturgical and theological implications as the Nave, representing the  universe, reflects the entire Orthodox theology of our Church about the Triune God, Jesus Christ and the salvation of the world.
   The narthex of the church is home to an exquisite representation of 'Anapeson' (Reclining Infant Jesus Christ) common in the monasteries of Constantinople, the only one throughout Greece during both the Byzantine and post-Byzantine period.
   Twelve scenes from the life of St. John the Baptist are portrayed with great success in the upper zone of the south and the north side, in accordance with the general habit stemming from the era of the Palaeologan dynasty that the life and torments of the Saint should be depicted inside the church dedicated to them.
   The multi-faceted composition “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord ", based on the central dome of Narthex, has been rendered with great skill. It inarguably constitutes one of the prettiest iconographies of the Post- Byzantine period in Greece.


 

bottom of page