Taxiarches
| Department | Archive |
|---|---|
| Collection | Byzantine Research Fund |
| Reference No. | BRF/01/01/07/137 |
| Level | Item |
| Place |
Taxiarches Thessalonike |
| Dates | 1908? |
| Donor/Creator |
Harvey, Mr William |
| Scope and Content | Plan of the crypt. This is a preliminary drawing. It forms part of a series: No 3 is inscribed in pencil in the upper right-hand corner. It is entitled in pencil: 'Ike Scherefee, Plan of the Lower Church'. Further annotation in pencil survives. |
| Further information | The church of Taxiarches (the Archangels Michael and Gabriel) in the upper part of present-day Thessalonike, is an one-aisled wooden-roofed basilica surrounded by an open portico on the north, south and the west sides. A burial crypt has been excavated underneath the church. The exterior walling of the monument consists of irregular brickwork and stones which on the east wall only are arranged in X-courses. The pattern as well as the blind arches and the decoration of the triangular gable with dentil courses are reminiscent of similar decorative techniques in the church of Hagios Nikolaos Orphanos and the katholikon of the Vlatadon monastery. On these grounds the monument could be assigned a date around the beginning of the 14th c. The church was converted into a mosque during the period of the Ottoman occupation. In Byzantine times it might have served as the katholikon of a monastic complex. |