Virgin Mary Church Kalambaka
Virgin Mary Church Kalambaka
The church of the Assumption is a three-aisle basilica ending in three apses eastward. The nave is elevated. The aisles are separated by alternating pillars and columns, while esonarthex communicates with the central aisle through trivilou opening. The exonarthex is later.
The initial phase of the existing building is dated back to the old late 11th or early 12th century, mainly based on the dating of the initial phase of the paintings. However, later studies tend to place the monument around 1000. Revealing parts of the mosaic floor beneath the floor of the modern church and the architectural elements of the monument, that its architectural form, the existence trivilou, synthronon and reconstructed by a cop marble pulpit with two staircases led to the hypothesis that the Byzantine church was erected the foundations of an early Christian basilica, which retained the outline.
Inside the temple is richly decorated with frescoes, which belong to two different phases. The oldest painting layer, dating to the late 11th - early 12th century., Retained fragments on the eastern edge of the south aisle. The bulk of the surviving painted decoration, which was performed by the priest Kyriazis and the Cretan monk Neophytos, son of the painter Theophanes dated in 1573. At the same time the church suffered extensive repairs. The frescoes decorating the walls of the narthex dates from the 18th century.