Continuing on with our consideration of 'Eastern Roman' (i.e. Byzantine) church architecture of the first millennium, our next stop is the church of Panagia Acheiropoietos in Thessaloniki. This particular structure has quite a long history. It was founded as a church around A,D. 450-470 and for approximately a thousand years, so it was, but in a familiar story for the region, after the Ottoman conquest, around the year 1430, it was converted into a mosque. This usage continued for a few centuries before being finally reverted back to a church in modern times.
The structure is typically Roman on its interior, with a classic basilica layout made up of the usual three naves, with the central nave terminating in the usual semi-circular apse. As far as its exterior goes, it is a good example of Roman architecture of this period -- enough so that it is considered a UNESCO World Heritage site. Architectural exteriors of this period were often characterized by their hefty appearance and their use many arches and windows (see, for example, the Porta Nigra in Trier, Germany).
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| A view of the church from the back, looking from the apse, West toward the narthex. |
Turning to the interior, we have already mentioned it follows the typical basilica plan. Perhaps in part because it was converted to a mosque and thus stripped of its iconography (one can still see some of the frescoes at the upper levels and the damages those images sustained) the basic Roman forms shine through all the brighter -- enough so that when we in the Latin West look at this, we recognize the same church architecture that we can also find with many first millennium basilicas in the West.
If the screen looks newer it is because it is; it was installed in modern times (though they did a good job here of making it look like a period screen to which icon panels have been added).
If much of the medieval iconography was lost after the building's transition to a mosque, what was preserved are the beautiful, fifth century Byzantine capitals and green marble columns. The central nave also still boasts its original marble pavement, and we can also still see some of the original fifth century mosaics -- likely preserved for the reason that they do not depict persons but instead vegetal motifs.
Interestingly, the church also has layers of history that have been discovered beneath. This is visible in the excavations that were done on the floors, revealing two even earlier pre-fifth century Roman floors, thought to have been originally from a Roman bath.
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| Layers of history |
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