|
|
St Demetrios with children: one of several Byzantine mosaics that escaped destruction from the hands of the Iconoclasts.
The Church of Saint Demetrius, or Aghios Demetrios, is the main sanctuary dedicated to the patron saint of Thessaloniki, dating from a time when it was the second largest city of the Byzantine Empire. The first church on the spot was constructed in the early 4th century AD, replacing a Roman bath that used to stand there before. A century later, Bishop Leontios had this small oratory replaced with a larger, three-aisled basilica. The church was repeatedly gutted by fires, and eventually was reconstructed as a five-aisled basilica in 629-634. This was the church much as it is today. The basilica is famous for six extant mosaics, dated to the period between the latest reconstruction and the inauguration of the Iconoclastic policies in 730. These mosaics, depicting St Demetrius with the church's founders or children, represent the only major sample of this art surviving from the Dark Age that followed Justinian's death. An inscription below one of the images glorifies heavens for saving the people of Saloniki from a Slavic raid in 612. Other magnificent mosaics that used to cover the church interior perished either during four centuries when it functioned as a mosque (1493-1912) or in a great fire of 1917. Black-and-white photographs convey some idea of what a priceless monument of early Byzantine craftsmanship was lost during the fire. Following the 1917 catastrophe, the church had to be restored for decades. The excavations, conducted in the 1930s and 1940s, brought to life some interesting items that may be seen in a museum situated inside the church's crypt. The church has been inscribed on the World Heritage List since 1988.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org "
|
|
|||||||||||||||||
