The Machinery of Night

Foto Friday: Church of the Holy Apostles

Church of the Holy Apostles Athens, June, 1990

This church looks terribly small -- not big enough to hold a dozen lumpy American tourists -- but it's not as small as it looks. This page has a photo at the top of the ancient Agora; the Church of the Holy Apostles is at the bottom of the picture, slightly to the left of center.

I was going to go in and look around, as this fellow did, but there was a sign at the front of the church reminding us that it was still a church, and that we should enter respectfully, not clomping in loudly in our hot pants and photographing everything willy-nilly[1]. A few black-robed Greek women slipping in for prayers highlighted this message.

I couldn't find out a lot about the church, except that it was built in the 11th century over an ancient nymphaion. Apparently it was restored in the last century, so the building you see did not survive ten centuries as it is.

[1]It's possible that I am misremembering this. Michael Lima -- he of the first link on the page -- says that the church was deconsecrated 50 years ago. Perhaps I saw a similar sign somewhere else, or I may be confusing the Church of the Holy Apostles with some other tiny polygonal church in Athens. But wherever they were, the black-robed women were real.

Labels: Foto Friday, Greece