Hagios Demetrios
The Church of Saint Demetrios (Greek Άγιος Δημήτριος Agios Dimitrios ) is a consecrated to St. Demetrios of Thessaloniki early Christian basilica in Thessaloniki. It lies at the foot of the hill of the Upper City, near the old market and is dedicated to this early Christian saints, one of the most important saints of the Greek Orthodox Church. Since 1988, the church is part of the UNESCO world heritage of the early Christian and Byzantine buildings in Thessaloniki.
- 2.1 basilica
- 2.2 crypt
- 2.3 Yevfimiev Chapel
- 3.1 Byzantine mosaics
- 3.2 Renaissance tomb
History
Original church and basilica
The first small church was built on the site of a Roman bath complex in the early 4th century. A century later, a three-aisled basilica, which was repeatedly damaged by fire and earthquake.
Five-aisled basilica of the Byzantine Empire
In the years 629-634 was rebuilt as a five-aisled basilica.
Mosque ( Camii ) in the Ottoman Empire
From 1493 to 1912 the church was used as a mosque and named in Turkish with Kasimiye Camii.
Reinstatement as Basilica
The great fire of 1917 led to the destruction of the roofs and the upper parts of the walls. The carried out with the involvement of the remaining substance reconstruction, during which extensive excavations took place, lasted until 1949.
Construction
Basilica
The church is a five-aisled, flat -roofed basilica of 53.58 meters in length and 33 meters in width with galleries and clerestory above the aisles and two rows of arches with supports Exchange, three-aisled transept and narrow narthex and dreibogigem input ( Trivelum ). She has an open roof. The capitals of great variety are mostly spoils.
Crypt
The crypt, once the place of worship for according to tradition, Demetrios is killed here, built in the Roman baths. In the Islamic period it was filled. It is accessible from the south transept and holds an exhibition.
Yevfimiev Chapel
The three-nave chapel of St.. Euthymius on the east side of the south transept was built in the time of Palaeologus. Your the Protaton on Mount Athos and the Períblebtos Church related in Ohrid frescoes represent the painting at the beginning of the 14th century in Thessaloniki.
Equipment
Byzantine mosaics
Large parts of the equipment, and the murals and mosaics have been lost in the fire of 1917. From the marble incrustations only a few remains have survived. From the once rich interior with mosaics from the 5th to the 9th century, only nine have received the Vierungspfeilern and the nave west wall, which were exposed in 1917. This created from a Greco- Byzantine mosaic workshop in Thessaloniki images are counted among the most important examples of early Byzantine mosaic art.
Renaissance tomb
The marble tomb of Loukás Spantoúnis is attributed from the year 1481 and stylistically of the Venetian Renaissance, a period in which even Thessaloniki partly under the influence of Venice. Nevertheless, it is unusual to find in a church in Greece such a Renaissance tomb.