Athens: Byzantine Art, Apse of Agios Andreas (St. Andrew)

Department Archive
Collection BSA SPHS Image Collection
Reference No. BSA SPHS 01/0292.1523
Level Item
Description Glass negative, approximately full plate size, a copy negative.
Dimensions 19 x 12.5 cm
Place Hagios Andreas
Athens
Dates Latest 1890
Donor/Creator Leaf, Mr Walter
Scope and Content The original description in the SPHS register reads: "Athens: Byzantine art. Apse of St. Andrew".
Notes Unknown date, but based on the demolition of the church in 1890, the photograph has to have been taken prior to this. Note that numerous images donated by Walter Leaf that were catalogued SPHS 1502 to 1608 that appeared in the 1897 slide catalogue in the Journal of Hellenic Studies.
Further information The three-aisled basilica of Hagios Andreas, which was located in the courtyard of the contemporary Metropolis of Athens, was the katholikon of the Hagia Philothei nunnery. The nunnery was named after Rigoula Venizelou (later St Philothei, d. 1589) of the powerful Venizelos family who served there as a nun. The church and the monastic buildings, which were restored by the saint in 1550, suffered extensive damage during the 1821 War of Independence, were demolished in 1890 and a new church was erected on the same site in 1893. Parts of the wall-paintings which decorated the monastic buildings are kept in the Byzantine Museum of Athens. Icons by the post-Byzantine painter Emmanuel Tzanes decorated the interior of the church.
Related records [BRF/02/01/01/001], Hagios Andreas, 1888-1890