151-164

Byzantine monastery in Thisseow street

• Καρύδας, Νάρκισσος

The plot of land at 6, Thisseos St. is in the open space in the block boundedby Sofokleous St, Olymbiados St., Ayias Sofias St., and Thisseos St.Two small sections of Late Hellenistic mud-built walls forming a comer(Fig. 1) were uncovered in the SE section of the site. A large section of a house located in the W part of the site belongs to theEarly Christian period (Fig. 2). It consists of 2 semi-basement rooms in its NEsection, and the E section of 2 more rooms continuing to the W is alsodiscernible. Further S in the E part of the house, there is a rectangular roommeasuring 56 m2 with a floor of fine multicoloured mosaic (Fig. 3) surroundedby a broad zone of coarse white mosaic. A passageway gives access to the rearrooms, while a grand flight of steps 6.50 m wide in the SW section of the siteleads to a lower level, probably a central courtyard. To the same period belongspart of a building at a higher level in the NE section of the site. Three roomswith floors of compacted clay survive. The area to the S is unbuilt, the rockyground sloping steeply.In the Middle Byzantine period (Fig. 4), the site was developed into amonastery. In the N section of the Early Christian building, which still existed,an aisleless church was built by adding a semicircular apse to the E wall. Thefloor of the church is elevated by 1.50 m, while the floor of the apse is hewn outof the natural rock and laid with re-used marble slabs. In the E section of thesite, which was filled to a depth of 1-1.50 m, an annex was built: 2 of its roomswere located, with thresholds of brick and floors of compacted clay. A staircase,of which 2 steps of brick slabs survive, led to a higher level.Lastly, part of the foundations of an eastward-facing semicircular apse werelocated in the NE part of the site, but most of the church to which it belongs andwhich was evidently the katholikon of the monastery was destroyed when theadjacent building to the N, giving onto Olymbiados St., was built.In the Late Byzantine period (Fig. 5), the site was destroyed. The mainchurch was soon rebuilt, while the semicircular apse acquired a 3-sided shape.To this period belong the 20 burials investigated around the church and the 11found in the S chapel. Apart from 2 rock-cut tombs, and 2 brick-built cistgravesinside the church, the rest were simple pit-graves, mostly without burialofferings, some with glazed bowls. A new structure was built in the SW sectionof the site with a floor of compacted clay. Judging by the remnants of pipes and wells and parts of the bases of built workbenches, it housed workshops.The existence of a Byzantine monastery in the area should not surprise us.Excavational data indicate that, after the Avar and Slav raids and the violentearthquakes of the 7th century, the city diminished in size and many parts of itwere abandoned in the centuries which followed. New monasteries, seeking thesecurity offered by a walled city, began to spring up in the open spaces thatappeared at that time.The area of Thessaloniki’s Upper City shows no evidence of habitation inthe Byzantine period, while increasing numbers of monasteries are beinglocated. Around the monastery in Thisseos St. there are modem churches whichwere once katholika of Byzantine monasteries (Fig. 6), such as Profitis Ilias,Latomou Monastery, the Taxiarches, Laodiyitria, Ayia Aikaterini, VlatadonMonastery, and Ayios Nikolaos Orfanos. To these we may now add the churchon the site between 90, Kassandrou St., 95, Olymbiados St., and 9, AndipatrouSt. (see Fig. 7).

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

Θεσσαλονίκη, συνέδρια

Περιέχει εικόνες