Asomatos, Kakovouno

Department Archive
Collection Byzantine Research Fund
Reference No. BRF/02/01/14/047
Level Item
Place Mani
Dates 1909?
Donor/Creator Traquair, Mr Ramsay
Scope and Content View of the interior of the dome. The photograph is annotated in pencil at the back.
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 Hossios 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 domed church of Asomatos, at Kakovouno in the lower Mani, is of the two-column plan with a small square barrel-vaulted narthex to the west. The masonry consists almost exclusively of thin split stones and mortar. The greyish-white marble iconostasis must have been imported. Particularly distinctive is the eleventh-century propylon of the church: it consists one of the earliest examples of type in the Mani.
Reference 1909. BSA 15: pl.13. Link to article