Panagia Episkopi

The Panagia Episkopi (Greek: Παναγία Επισκοπή) is a middle-Byzantine Greek Orthodox former cathedral, now church, on the island of Santorini (Thira), in the Cyclades region of Greece. It is also called Panagia tis Episkopis (Παναγία της Επισκοπής) or Church of Episkopi Thiras (Ναός Επισκοπής Θήρας). According to an old, now almost completely destroyed inscription, the building of the church was commissioned by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos at the end of the 11th century, and took the place of a previous three-aisled early Byzantine-era basilica. The church was dedicated to the Panagia ("All-holy"), a Greek Orthodox appellation for the Virgin Mary. The second part of the name (Episkopi) means "episcopal". The Panagia Episkopi was the seat of the Orthodox diocese of Santorini until 1207 and again from 1537 to 1827.

The church was built in the northern foothills of the Profitis Ilias (Προφήτης Ηλίας), the highest mountain on Santorini. It is approximately 600 metres (2,000 ft) southeast of the township of Mesa Gonia (Μέσα Γωνιά), which is also referred to as Episkopi Gonias (Επισκοπή Γωνιάς), the name of the previous Episcopal seat. The eastern coast of the island at Kamari (Καμάρι) is approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the church, and Fira (Φηρά), the capital of the island, is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to the northwest. Mesa Gonia is connected to the Panagia Episkopi via a partially paved road, which ends in a parking area directly north of the church.

The Panagia Episkopi is a beige-washed cross-in-square domed church with peripheral structures. The floor plan takes the shape of a Greek cross that is 14 metres (46 ft) long and 11.1 metres (36 ft) wide, and the crossing supports a dome upon a tholobate. The church roof is covered with red tiles or simply plastered. The building has five entrances, two each to the north and the south, and a main entrance to the west.

The east-facing cross-arm of the church contains the altar, and also contains a half-round apse that is recognisable from outside. The apse contains a mullion which, like the two smaller windows next to the apse, is filled with colourful glass bricks. The red, green, yellow and blue glass bricks provide the only exterior light into the chancel, that is otherwise only lit through the opened doors of the iconostasis, or through it from the inner part of the church. North of the chancel, at the northeast side of the building, is a narrow bell-gable with four bells that can be rung from outside using bell ropes.

On the flat roof of the western annex, accessible from a narrow staircase on the south, there are two chapels. They were completed over the entrance hall during the early 20th century, and were dedicated to the prophet Daniel and Gregory of Nazianzus.

Due to the addition of annexes, the interior of the Panagia Episkopi has a number of larger and smaller rooms, which gives the church a labyrinthine appearance. The floor is covered with marble tiles of various sizes. A relatively low synthronon is integrated into the apse. In front of the west side of the central church area there is an entrance hall (narthex), that extends the full width of the church. Originally there were, besides the main entrance in the western wall of the church, two side entrances; one to the North and one to the south. The southern part of the narthex was, however, separated from the interior part of the church, and now exists as a small secondary room, and is only accessible from outside, through the southern entrance. In the southeast, the interior corner of the cross shape is filled out by an annex, which was built in 1767 to settle a dispute between Roman and Orthodox Christians, and was broken through to the chancel, so that it could serve as a chapel for the Roman Catholics of the island.

Various icon stands are lined up along the walls of the inner room. The best known and most valuable icon in the church is that of the Panagia Glykofilousa (Παναγιά Γλυκοφιλούσα – "sweetly kissing Madonna"), dated to the 12th century.

The iconostasis, which separates the eastern end of the main hall of the church from the chancel (called the "bema" in Orthodox tradition), is notable for its brilliantly multicoloured effect. It has the usual five-part structure. The lower part consists of the original furnishings from the construction of the church around 1100. The upper part consists of an engraved wooden post-Byzantine architrave, a frieze with fourteen icons and a carved top. The variety of ornaments is considered unique in the middle-Byzantine era, with links to the 6th century and to churches in Constantinople, Venice and Ravenna.