The Byzantine Church of Panagía Gorgoepíkoös

George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Byzantine Church of Panagía Gorgoepíkoös in Athens, Greece, is a unique little structure. In terms of its size, it is quite tiny, likely to only hold a hundred worshippers at most, but what it lacks in size it certainly makes up for in charm.  

The dating of the church is disputed, with dates ranging from the ninth through thirteenth century, and follows the classic Byzantine cross-in-square plan.

Jebulon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Interestingly, the exterior of this church is compromised of copious amounts of spolia -- architectural elements taken from earlier structures. This spolia ranges from other medieval bits (which raises some of the questions about the church's dating), all the way back to components salvaged and repurposed from buildings of classical Greek antiquity. Roman churches are, of course, famous for their use of spolia, but this particular Byzantine church takes its use to a whole other level.  Here is just a small taste of some of it:

Amongst the various spolia seen here, you can see remnants of a Corinthian capital

Francesco Bini, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A classical Greek figure set between two crosses
Nikos Konstantinidis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

George E. Koronaios from Athens, Greece., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

George E. Koronaios from Athens, Greece., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The interior of the church was formerly covered in medieval frescoes, but today these are mostly absent, with only two frescoes to be found, one in the apse and one in the dome.  The plan, as you'll see, is very compact and very simple. 

John Samuel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The church notably includes a beautiful balustrade separating the presbytery from the nave. This particular screen follows the model of the unified first millennium Church of both East and West -- though with some later additions of course -- utilizing hanging curtains instead of icons to complete the enclosure of the screen. (For those curious about the symbols on these contemporary curtains, please see our article about gammadiae.)

George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

As mentioned, the apse of the church includes an image of the Theotokos and in addition to this, the dome of the church includes a beautiful frescoed image of Christ Pantocrator.

George E. Koronaios, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tango7174, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Overall this is a very simple structure, but it is extremely appealing and demonstrates how much can be done with a very little good design.

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