Ο βυζαντινός ναός του Αγίου Νικολάου του Μεγαλομάτη ή Στρατηλάτη στο Σκοπό στη Ζάκυνθο
Part of : Δελτίον της Χριστιανικής Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας ; Vol.32, 1989, pages 83-100
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83-100
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The Byzantine Church of Saint Nicholas Megalomatis or Stratilatis on Mount Skopos on Zakynthos
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Articles
Abstract:
The church of St. Nicholas Megalomatis on MountSkopos is one of the Byzantine monuments of Zakynthos hidden under later buildings. The side of the churchis on the "Holy" mountain of Skopos, near the villageof Vasilika.The monument has been mentioned by other scholars(E. Salvator, Ο. Riemman, D. Zevas). The church was incontinuous use between 1513 and 1809. In 1973, Prof.Vocotopoulos published a brief study of the wall paintings.Today the church still preserves the form it had in Venetian times. It is a two-aisled basilica with a vaulted narthex and an underground room at the west end. On thenorth side there is a building used as the monks' residence. There is a large three-sided apse at the east end,and a small, round apse on the south side. The centralsection of the altar has side conches, forming a kind oftriconch. The church has a wooden pitched roof.The monument belongs to the transitional type of"cross-in-square" church with a narthex and propylon;this is demonstrated by the surviving sections of the oldvaults of the narthex, the central walls, which are preserved up to the cornice, and the lower parts of thevaults in the south aisle. The dome of the church may bereconstructed and drawn on the basis of the geometrictracings used for the construction of this type of church.It is clear from the architectural construction of themonument that the walls were built in three phases:a) about A.D. 1000, b) in the last quarter of the 11th century, and c) in the second half of the 12th century. Thewall paintings date from this last period.These features, combined with the history of Zakynthos, enable us to date the phases of the church of St.Nicholas Megalomatis as follows: the first phase is to beplaced between 944 and 1010, the second in the first halfof the 12th century, and the third between 1147 and1185. There thus appears to have been continuous Byzantine building activity on Zakynthos during the period 944-1185.Typologically, the monument has similarities with someof the Byzantine churches in the south-west Péloponnèse, namely, the large, three-apsed bema with threealtars, the enlarged width (in comparison with thelength), and the longitudinal arrangement of the groundplan.
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