Location information

The church of Samarina

ELLINOEKLISSIA (Village) ANDROUSSA
The church of Samarina of the Holy Mary the Egyptian is celebrated today in the name of the Zoedochou Pigi (Virgin Mary) and is Knowh with the popular name Samarina. It is situated near the village Ellinoklisia (=Greek Church) or Samari and was subject to the byzantine episcopacy of Androusa. As a building it dates back to the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century, about 1200 A.D. according to local tradition. According to one version it was built on the ruins of an older, idolatrons temple dedicated to the goddess rea. The shape of the church itself is cross-like while its dome is decorated with bricks and supported on two pillars and on the dies of the iconostasis. The four props of the arch, which bring the dome closer to the Holy Altar, while the architectural influence on the domed hemispheres is clearly from Konstantinopole.

This extract is cited Jan 2003 from the Messenia Prefecture Tourism Promotion Commission URL below, which contains images.

• http://www.na-messinia.gr/docs-en/n-samarinas.htm

Byzantine church of the Samarina Monastery, 12th c

KALOGERORACHI (Village) ANDROUSSA