Koimesis, Prasteion
| Department | Archive |
|---|---|
| Collection | Byzantine Research Fund |
| Reference No. | BRF/02/01/14/075 |
| Level | Item |
| Place |
Mani |
| Dates | 1909? |
| Donor/Creator |
Traquair, Mr Ramsay |
| Scope and Content | South-east view. The photograph is annotated in pencil at the back. The church has been mis-identified. It is labelled as 'Hagios Demetrios' in pencil at the back of the photograph. |
| Further information | The area in the middle of the Peloponnese, on the Laconia/Messenia border, was known as early as the 10th c. as the ‘Mani’. It was occupied by the Slavs in the early Medieval period and was christianised in the 10th c. by Hosios Nikon. There are scores of Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in the Mani: the first major phase of building activity in the region seems to run from the late 10th to the later 12th c. The small twelfth-century church of Hagioi Theodoroi at Prasteion in the upper Mani forms along with the much later (seventeenth-century/1638) Koimesis church part of the buildings of the monastery of Hagioi Theodoroi. In terms of architecture the building is a strange combination of the cross-in-square and the two-column types. In the iconostasis of the Koimesis church is a portrait of the founder Isaiah, a former official at the Patriarchate in Constantinople, accompanied by a dedicatory inscription. Ancient spolia (marble slabs) decorate the church floor. |