331-360

A middle-byzantine church in Patras and its position in the medieval town

• Αθανασούλης, Δημήτρης

An anonymous small byzantine church has been excavated at 43 Agiou Demetriou Street in the Upper Town of Patras. It is an aisleless, timber-roofed church with a three-sided apse and dimensions of 7.70 m. long and 5.50 m. wide. The wall construction is of rubble masonry with mud as a binding material, mixed with unevenly spaced courses of bricks. The entrance is in the middle of the south wall. The church has a built iconostasis decorated with wall-paintings. The building underwent later interventions including the reconstruction of the west wall and the addition of a second wall along the inner face of the north side of the church. Fragments of the wall-painted decoration, which probably belongs to the Palaiologan period, were discovered during the excavation. A number of byzantine burials were excavated inside the church. The numismatic evidence includes four anonymous folleis (970-1035), which form the terminus post quem for the building foundation, an imitation of tetarteron of the late 12th c., and eight tomeselli of the 14th c. The finds also include two glass vessels, Middle-Byzantine sgraffito glazed pottery, imported southern Italian polychrome ware, archaic majolica and majolica. The archaeological evidence indicates that the church had already been abandoned by the end of the 17th c., which is further confirmed by the topographical information from the Grimani plan of 1700.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)
• Architecture, Ancient
• Decorative arts

Περιέχει σχέδια, βιβλιογραφία, συντομογραφίες και παραρτήματα, Το άρθρο περιέχεται στο τεύχος: Μέρος Α'-Μελέτες