Inside the Agora archaeological site. Open 8:00 - 15:00 winter and 8:00- 18:30
summer. Tel: 210 321 0185
The church of the Holy Apostles stands out in the ruins of the ancient
agora, immediately recognizable as what it is, a mid Byzantine era gem set on
top of an ancient temple dedicated to the nymphs. It wasn’t always this lonely
or this small. Built sometime in the late 10th
century Agii Apostoli is a one off
for many reasons. Firstly, it is an Athenian
domed tetrastyle cross-in-square church but with each of the four arms of
the cross ending in a rounded conch
making it a tetraconch church, the
only Byzantine building like it in Athens.
The eastern conch is, of course, the apse and a door was set into the
western one. To complete the design, the unknown architect rounded out the four
corner bays, so the effect is like an opened eight-petalled flower and very
appealing. A square narthex was added on to the western side with three doors leading from it to the nave
so again, the proportions remain attractive.
Secondly, if you accept a later date for the building of Pantanassa,
this is the oldest Byzantine building still
standing in Athens. Athens being Athens and its history being what it is,
of course there were add-ons in various centuries, all removed in the period of
1954-6 when the building was restored. The
American School has a complete record of the renovation.
Thirdly, this is one church that you have to pay admission to see. When the area of the agora was teeming with
businesses and houses, Agioi Apostoli was
rubbing shoulders with many neighbouring buildings. This area was teeming with
life and at some point this became a parish church. The Apostles were the
patron saints of used goods vendors, men who once crowded the adjacent streets
and gathered here on the church’s feast day (June 30th). Workers in
the same trade had their own patron saints throughout Byzantine history and
into the Ottoman period as well. The nickname “Solaki” probably refers to a
prominent family with holdings in the area. In the 1930s all of the houses and
buildings around Agioi Apostoli were razed by the American School to uncover
the ancient agora you see today, leaving a parish church standing alone without
a parish.
It is easy now to investigate the outside of Agioi Apostoli and you see
pretty much what you expect – cloisonné masonry, dentil bands (five ), kufic
lettering, double layers of bricks in horizontal courses for emphasis, and the so called arcade style windows of an
early type. The inside is a cool surprise, clean cut and eggshell white except
where an icon has been preserved – here the transition from Church to historical
artifact is complete and the effect is actually quite pleasant.
The Pantocrator is still in the dome and the pendentives (the triangles
above the columns and just under the
dome that effect the transition from square columns to round dome) still have
the apostles holding up the heavens. Three of the columns are copies and one is the
real thing – from the Roman period. The iconostasis is in the style of the
period, even using some pieces of the original.
The icons in the nave are from other churches in the now destroyed
parish.
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