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The church of Agioi Apostoloi
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Agioi Apostoloi (the Church of the Holy Apostles) is located in the western part of the historic centre of Thessaloniki, near the west wall and the now destroyed Litaia Gate.

The church was the catholicon of a monastery. Surviving structures include part of the once imposing tower-shaped portal to the southwest, and a large cistern to the northwest, the size of which attests to the large number of monks living there, and by extension to the monastery’s wealth. According to tradition, the church takes its name from the popular belief that it had a twelve-domed roof symbolizing the apostles, though the subject matter of the frescoes in the peristyle reveals that it must initially have been dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

The catholicon was built from 1310 to 1314 under the sponsorship of Patriarch Niphon I, as attested by the inscription above the entrance, the monograms on the capitals of the west facade and the ceramoplastic inscriptions on the west and south sides. The second founder referred to is Paul, abbot and former pupil of Niphon, who is depicted praying before the Virgin Mary above the entrance leading from the narthex to the nave. Circa 1520-1530 the monastery was converted into a mosque. The mosaics and frescoes were covered with plaster once the gold background tesserae had been carefully removed. The building was restored to Christian worship following the liberation of Thessaloniki in 1912.

The Holy Apostles is a composite cross-in-square church with a narthex and Π shaped peristyle. This ends in two chapels to the east, and has four low domes in the corners. The east side is dominated by the large seven-sided sanctuary niche, flanked by smaller three-sided conches forming the Prothesis and the Diaconicon . The exterior features finely constructed elements typical of Paleologan architecture (numerous arches, conches and brick half columns ). Inside, refined proportions combined with a variety of morphological elements make for a superbly balanced and sophisticated composition.

Remains of the interior decoration include mosaics and frescoes of exceptional historical and artistic value. The mosaics were sponsored by Patriarch Niphon, who apparently intended to decorate the lower sections with marble revetments . The Pantocrator is depicted in the central dome, surrounded by ten full-length prophets. Lower down, the figures of the four Evangelists still survive, alongside scenes from the Dodecaorton depicted in the arches: the Nativity, the Transfiguration, the Entry into Jerusalem, the Resurrection, the Crucifixion and the Assumption. Together with the mosaics in the Chora and Pammakaristos monasteries in Constantinople, those in the Holy Apostles are the latest examples of such decoration in Byzantium, numbering among the sublimest manifestations of Paleologan art.

Niphon was ousted from the patriarchal throne in 1314, and thus could not complete his ambitious plan. The decorations were supplemented with equally high quality frescoes in the lower parts of the nave, the narthex, the peristyle and the north chapel dedicated to John the Baptist, bearing scenes from the Old and New Testaments, and subjects either inspired by hymnography or of a symbolic nature. The wall paintings date to the late 1410s,  and have been linked to the abbacy of Paul, the second founder.


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