Hagios Mamas

Department Archive
Collection Byzantine Research Fund
Reference No. BRF/02/01/16/036
Level Item
Place Náxos
Naxos Island
Donor/Creator Fotheringham, Mr John Knight
Scope and Content South-west view. The photograph is annotated in ink at the back.
Further information Naxos and Paros were the two central islands of the Duchy of the Archipelago or of Naxos or of the Aegean which was established by Italian city states, especially Genoa, Pisa and Venice in the Aegean after the siege of Constantinople in 1204. Marco Sanudo, nephew of Enrico Dandolo, who had established himself as the Duke of Naxia or of the Archipelagos, conquered the island in 1210, divided it into provinces and rebuilt its fortifications.

The Byzantine church of Hagios Mamas, patron of the shepherds, at Potamia, was founded in the 7th c. but was completed in the 9th c. Until 1207 it served as a cathedral. Worth noting are the sculpture and the wall-paintings of the monument.