Le catholicon du monastère de Saint-Démétrius à Tsajézi sur le mont Kissavos en Thessalie orientale: questions de périodes architecturales
The katholikon of the monastery of Saint Demetrius at Tsagezi on Mount Kissavos in Thessaly: issues of constructional phases

Summary/Abstract: The katholikon of the monastery of Saint Demetrius at Tsagezi on Mount Kissavos in Thessaly is one of the most important churches of the athonite type. It belongs to complex four-column cross-in-square type with lateral conches (choirs), a two-columned lite, typicaria, ambulatory, and two-side chapels. Evidences provided by the masonry of the church, a group of sculptures which used during its construction, as well as the likeness between the katholikon of Saint Demetrius and the church of Prophet Elias in Thessaloniki, lead to the suggestion that the original phase of the katholikon can be placed in the Paleologan period. Later, in the middle of the 19th century, the already ruined original church, was restored radically. The new church was erected over the remnants of the Paleologan one by following its ground plan and was preserved until 1868. That year a fire destroyed the church, from which only the walls up to 5m height retained. If our suggestion about the Paleologan original phase of the katholikon of the monastery of Saint Demetrius is correct, the katholikon is, perhaps, the oldest church, in which the fully composed athonite type appears, namely a church of the complex fourcolumn cross-in-square type characterized, except for lateral conches, by lite, typikaria and side chapels.

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