Church of Agii Asomati Taxiarches/ Petrakis Monastery

What I can see

This is one of the oldest Byzantine churches of the city, dedicated to the Holy Incorporeal Archangels. This complex, four-columned, registered, cruciform, domed church is the main church of Petrakis Monastery. The monastery has three wings in a Π-shape, with the church in the middle. The offices of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece are housed here. The narthex of the church is original, while the outer narthex is from the 19th century. The octagonal dome of the narthex is lower than the main church’s dome. Various parts of the church, like parts of the altar, columns, and capitals, are the oldest, which gives us the ability to date the monument. The frescos are of Yorgos Markos (1719), while those of the narthex and outer narthex are posterior.

What I can't see

Physician Petros Papastamatis, from Dimitsana (Peloponnese) was a monk at the monastery of St. John Karea, and was named Parthenios. He became known as Parthenios Petrakis. He renovated the monastery in the 17th century and it was named after him. Since then, the abbots all came from the Petrakis family until this tradition was interrupted in 1840. The property of the monastery was enormous. During the Ottoman rule, the monastery helped the city’s Christians, it later ceded estates for charity institutions, and after the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the German occupation it did charity work. Petrakis Monastery was accused by the student movement of the Polytechnic, however, of being friendly to the junta of colonels, and of failing to help the students of the uprising when their lives were in danger.

Info

• Address: 14 Ioannou Gennadiou St.

Bibliography