{"id":1751,"date":"2010-09-06T02:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T23:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klqewmpxo.cyon.link\/?page_id=1751"},"modified":"2024-10-28T16:28:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T14:28:31","slug":"naxos-panagia-chrysopigi-apiranthos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/azalas.de\/en\/naxos-panagia-chrysopigi-apiranthos\/","title":{"rendered":"Panagia Chrysopigi near Apiranthos"},"content":{"rendered":"

O<\/big>n a ridge named Koraki\u00e1 south of Ap\u00edranthos lies a tiny church called Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed. It is a unique, very unusual building. The archaeologist Georgios Mastoropoulos concludes from the smallness of the building and the architecture and masonry which are quite unusual for a church, that the building was not originally built as a church but as a tomb, which may date back to the Mycenaean epoch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

T<\/big>he church lies about half an hour on foot from Ap\u00edranthos, near the pass to Danak\u00f3s. We hiked there starting at the monastery Fotod\u00f3tis at Danak\u00f3s, from where you can reach the church in about 20 minutes via a beautiful hiking trail.<\/p>\n

\"Karkos
\nThe church of Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed lies on the small ridge east of this picturesque oak-covered valley namend Kark\u00f3sbetween Ap\u00edranthos and Danak\u00f3s (slightly to the right of the center of the picture).<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nHere you can see the small church on the marble hill above the oak grove (the picture is taken from the same location as the previous one).<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nthe church of Panagia Chrysopig\u00ed from the south<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe church consists of two small rooms side-by-side. The ceiling of the building has collapsed.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe building is surrounded by a mostly dilapidated circular enclosure wall. In the background mount Zeus.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe enclosure wall is preserved only in a few places.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia<\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe hill consists of marble of good quality. Next to the church in some places stones have been quarried.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nHere too traces of the quarrying are visible.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe northern room has a vestibule (porch) in the west, which is most likely younger than the rest of the building. The entrance to the room is made of large monolithic marble blocks.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nView through the entrance into the vestibule and to the monolithic entrance to the main room. The vestibule is 1.65 meters long and mostly built from flat, lying stones.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nAbove the entrance small niches are built into the wall.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nView through the inner entrance into the 2.75 meter long main room. The building is oriented exactly towards the east.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe stonework of the main room is very unusual: It consists of very large, carefully joined stones, some of which are standing upright. The space narrows upwards as the walls widen inwards.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nlooking back towards the entrance<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nview from above into the very narrow main room.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe walls of the main room are exceptionally thick. Below they reach about the same width as the interior free space, namely 1.50 meters. Due to the widening of the walls, towards the top the width of the open space drops below one meter, while the walls are at the top about 1.75 meters thick.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe walls consist of two rows of large stone slabs. For the masonry, clay was used as mortar.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe inner half of the walls are made of very large stones, the outer half partly of smaller stones.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe building from behind with the partially collapsed corner. The masonry is much less carefully executed from the outside than the inner wall. In the left wall, the reddish clay used as mortar is visible.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nSouth of the main building lies a slightly smaller room (“south nave”), which is probably more recent. Its entrance looks to the west and is partly built of large blocks, but the southern wall is quite a bit narrower than the walls of the main room.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"Panagia
\nThe south room from behind; here the walls are not widening upwards.<\/small><\/p>\n

S<\/big>everal aspects of the architecture of Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed are extremely unusual. Typical of a church is actually only the orientation of the building towards the east and the entrance lying towards the west. On the other hand, an apse, the round protrusion of the altar room in the east, which exists in almost all churches, is completely absent. Also the smallness of room makes any use as a church almost impossible. Very noteworthy is the unique thickness of the walls, especially compared to the smallness of the building. The masonry, carefully made of very large stones, is completely atypical of Byzantine buildings and suggests a much older age. Noteworthy is also the round enclosure wall, which certainly had a special purpose. The peculiarities of the architecture strongly suggest that the building is older than Byzantine and that it was used only secondarily as a church. Such a conversion of an older structure to the church is not uncommon: Almost all ancient temples and sanctuaries were later converted into churches.<\/p>\n

T<\/big>he building of the Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed has \u200b\u200bcertain similarities with the usual simple stone houses of the shepherds, the so-called mit\u00e1toi<\/em> (plural, from mit\u00e1tos<\/small>). Typical for the stone houses is mainly the style of masonry, in which the interior is narrowed upwards by a thickening of the walls. This was necessary as because of the absence of wood the houses could only be covered with stone slabs. As it is difficult to find stone slabs of a large size, the widening of the walls upwards was necessary as way to achieve a larger opening inside. However, the building of the Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed also displays some features that are not common in ordinary mit\u00e1toi<\/em>, such as the entrance lying in the narrow side, the very thick walls and the conspicuously large, partly vertical stones of the inner wall.<\/p>\n

\"mitatos
\nFor comparison, a typical mit\u00e1tos<\/em>, a stone-built shepherd’s house, which is located in the immediate vicinity of Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed. The mit\u00e1toi<\/em> always have the entrance in the larger side.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"mitatos
\nHere too the entrance consists of large blocks of marble, which, however, do not seem quite as monumental as in Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"mitatos
\nThe typical mit\u00e1toi<\/em> also show a narrowing of the interior space upwards, which results from a widening of the walls; from the outside, the building is rectangular. The masonry consists of rather small, flat lying stones.<\/small><\/p>\n

\"mitatos
\nBy widening the walls, the interior is narrowed so much that it can be covered by large stone slabs.<\/small><\/p>\n

F<\/big>rom what time may the building of Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed really stem and what might have been its original function? As the archaeologist G. Mastoropoulos shows, the masonry resembles most that of Mycenaean tombs. The characteristic narrowing towards the top can also sometimes be found in Mycenaean structures. On Naxos a significant Mycenaean settlement existed in the area of today’s Ch\u00f3ra. A Mycenaean tomb, which is in some aspects similar to the structure of the Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed, lies on the east coast south of Moutso\u00fana. Near the village Komiak\u00ed in the north of the island a Mycenaean tholos tomb was found. It is quite possible that Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed was originally a Mycenaean tomb; it would then date from around 1200 BC. This fits with its location at the highest, most prominent point of a route between the Mycenaean settlement in the Ch\u00f3ra and a settlement that must have belonged to the Mycenaean tomb at Moutso\u00fana. Despite the comparatively few finds from the Mycenaean epoch, one can safely assume that the fertile valleys around Ap\u00edranthos would have been populated during this time.<\/p>\n

B<\/big>y the way, the rather unusual name Chrysopig\u00ed<\/em> might also be a hint that the church was a Mycenaean tomb before: Chrysopig\u00ed<\/em> means “Well of Gold” – maybe an old memory of golden grave goods which were quite common in the tombs of members of the Mycenaean aristocracy?<\/p>\n

W<\/big>hatever its true history – certainly Panag\u00eda Chrysopig\u00ed is an extraordinary and particularly interesting building that is well worth the hike to visit it!<\/p>\n

see also:<\/p>\n