What I can see

Many talk about a Byzantine church, but the church of Agii Saranta was constructed during the Ottoman period, thus is a post-Byzantine church. It is a one-room church, on the masonry of which are also found architectural elements of an ancient building, probably of the Roman period.

 

What I can't see

Until the beginning of 1990s, the church was located in Kifissias Avenue. When the avenue had to be widened, initially it was proposed that the church be demolished. This proposal was strongly argued against, and the idea of ​​transferring it to another place was strongly supported, although such a transfer was something that had never happened before in Greece. After the church was listed as a monument, specialists such as Dimitris Korres devoted countless hours of study on how to transfer it and construct the platform that would be used to support the building during the transfer. The transfer took place amid fears of failure even by the supporters of the project, due to the sensitivity of the building. During the church’s transfer, parts of  Roman sculptures and other marble antiquities of the same period were found. The transfer route covered 150 metres with two turns, which was taken at an extremely slow pace, while special conservators supervised the frescoes so that they remained unharmed. When the church was on the first turn, its sanctuary was not orientated to the east, something that has never happened again in the history of Christian churches in Greece.

 

Info

• Address: Ag. Dimitriou Sq.

Bibliography