The church of Agia Aikaterini


The Church of Agia Aikaterini (St. Catherine’s) is located on the southwest edge of Ano Poli in Thessaloniki. Its Byzantine name is not known, nor can it be identified with any of the churches in Thessaloniki mentioned in sources. Whatever the case may be, information provided by the monument itself suggests that it was originally dedicated to Christ, leading some scholars to identify it as the catholicon of the Monastery of Christ Almighty.

Agia Aikaterini is a composite four-column cross-in-square church, with a peristyle ending in two symmetrical chapels to the east. It has five domes - the central one covering the main nave, and four smaller ones on the corners of the peristyle.

The monument’s exterior is highly refined, forming a gradually scaled building mass in elegant proportions, with a series of distinct decorative elements (dogtooth courses, blind arches and niches, half columns, two and three light-windows, openings with superimposed arches, ceramoplastic ornaments). A strong horizontal axis is created by a marble cornice  dividing the cube-shaped main body in two. The church has been dated to between the late 13th and early 14th century, though evidence of an older building incorporated in the catholicon points to an even earlier date.

Only a small portion of the original wall paintings have survived in the interior; based on stylistic features they been dated to the early 14th century, circa 1315-1325. Prelates and the Communion of the Apostles are depicted in the sanctuary apse, with prophets and angels appearing around a now destroyed representation of the Pantocrator in the central dome. The iconographic programme in the nave includes scenes from the miracles of Christ, while the western section of the peristyle has depictions of individual saints, mainly ascetics and Pillar Saints.

The fact that only a limited potion of the decoration has survived is due to significant modifications occurring when the church was converted into a mosque in the Ottoman period. Extensive maintenance work was carried out in 1947-1951 to lend the church its present form, followed by more work on the roof and vaults in the 1980s and 1990s.
 


Glossary (11)

catholicon: the main church of a monastery. As a rule it was the most imposing one, located in the center of the courtyard
peristyle: Space surrounding the main body of a church or the core of a centrally-planned building. In domed basilicas this was formed by the side naves and the western part of the church. In later periods peristyles surrounded enclosed cruciform cores. In the Palaeologan period peristyles were built around many of the Middle Byzantine churches in Constantinople, often serving as funerary chapels.
chapel: small sized church, either independent, belonging to a religious foundation, or part of a larger church. In Byzantium chapels were often used for burials.
dome: hemispherical vault resting on a cylindrical or polygonal drum. Widely used in Christian church architecture.
dogtooth, dentil, saw-tooth or course: ceramic decorative elements that can be oblong or meet along the crowning of the roof, like frames surrounding windows. Can be single or double.
demi or half column: Architectural element of semicircular cross section, corresponding to half a vertical column. Demi or half columns were usually embedded into a wall or to other architectural elements, such as the two sides of a pillar, thus forming mullions.
triple-light window: window with three openings that form an arc at the top.
ceramoplastic decoration: ceramic and plinth decorative elements inlayed on the exterior surfaces of church walls (bricks, meanders, crosses, diamonds, jagged strips, etc.)
cornice: architectural feature separating the upper and lower sections of church walls, both inside and out. A thin, projecting band, usually semicircular in cross section.
wall paintings or murals: Painted scenes on a wall or ceiling surface.
stylites or pillar saints: ascetic hermits or monks who lived on pillars. A typical example is that of the monk Simeon Stylites, who lived on a column at Telanisso, Syria. To honour him, a magnificent cruciform basilica was later built round this pillar.


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Bibliography (3)

1. Τούρτα Α., Κουρκουτίδου - Νικολαϊδου Ε., "Περίπατοι στη Βυζαντινή Θεσσαλονίκη", 1997

2. Χατζητρύφωνος Ευαγγελία, Το περίστωο στην υστεροβυζαντινή εκκλησιαστική αρχιτεκτονική, Σχεδιασμός, λειτουργία , Ευρωπαϊκό Κέντρο Βυζαντινών και Μεταβυζαντινών Μνημείων, Thessaloniki, 2004

3. Tsigaridas A. N, ‘Les fresques de l’église Sainte-Catherine de Thessalonique’ in Sur les pas de Vojislav J. Djurić, Beograd, 2011


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