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Type: Timber - Roofed Basilica
Date: Phases
Description:
The church is situated near the road that connects Markopoulo and Keratea, in the east of Kalyvia. It is a timber-roofed basilica characterized by three building phases. The first phase dates to the early Christian period. The eastern part with its apse and small fragments of the walls surrounding it belong to this phase. To the second Byzantine phase belong today’s screen, a tribelon and the wall supporting the pointed arch, which constituted the façade of the monument. Finally, the remaining western part of the church with the second tribelon imitating the old one belongs to the third phase, the one of the Turkish domination. In the interior, the tribelon is made of remnants dated to the early Christian period such as columns, capitals and dosserets. An ancient inscribed tombstone with two rosettes has been incorporated to the built altar. The wall paintings of the church, which belong to three different periods, are remarkable. The most recent one dates to the 18th century and has the typical features of the technique of the painter Georgios Markos. Characteristic is the many-faced representation of the Last Judgment in the western wall of the temple. Nevertheless, of immense importance is the Byzantine representation of the Last Judgment, which dates to the 13th century. It is the only representation of the Last Judgment on a screen. This very fact makes this work – apart from its artistic value - extremely important among the Byzantine monuments of Attica. Sins concerning common phenomena of the medieval era such as tax collectors’ misuses or forgeries but also sins in connection with rural life are depicted in the representation. Thus, the latter reflects everyday life in the countryside of Attica during that period. Furthermore, certain western influences evident in this work reflect the new status quo, that is the new political, social and religious reality the Frankish rule imposed on this remote Byzantine region. Finally, the disorder of the rural society in this region is also denoted.
Chatzidakis M., Aspects de la peinture murale du XIII siecle en Grece, óôï “L’ Art Byzantin du XIIIe siecle”, Symposium de Sopocani 1965, Beograd 1967, p.66-67, Ìïuriki Doula, Un unsual represantation of the Last Judjement in a thirteenth century fresco at Saint Georges near Kouvaras in Attica, Deltion Christianikis kai Archeologikis Etaireias 8 (1975-76) 145-171.