AGIA SOFIA CHURCH IN THESSALONIKI

This large, ochre-walled ^7th-century church (Ιερός Ναός Αγίας Σοφίας/Ieros Naos Agias Sofias) is one of 15 monuments in Thessaloniki listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Home to precious mosaics, it is one of the most important Byzantine buildings in Greece. Like its illustrious model, Agia Sofia in Constantinople (^6th century), it is dedicated to Saint Sophia, incarnation of Divine Wisdom. It was erected in the 620s, after the collapse of a ^4th-century basilica, and took on its present form between the ^8th and ^12th centuries, becoming the metropolitan (diocesan) church of Thessalonica. Almost square (31 x 29 m) and topped by a central dome, it adopts a transitional plan between that of the inscribed cross and that of the earlier three-nave basilica. The church was briefly converted into a Catholic cathedral by the Franks (1205-1224), then into a mosque by the Ottomans (1523-1912) under the name of Ayasofya Camii. Seriously damaged by fire in 1890, it was restored in 1909 by the French Byzantinist Charles Diehl. But it was spared by the great fire of 1917, which ravaged two-thirds of the city: the flames stopped at the entrance to its large rectangular courtyard.

Mosaics and baptistery. The dome is adorned with a gilded mosaic dating from 885. It depicts the Ascension of Christ: Jesus is carried by two angels with, in the lower register, the apostles surrounded by olive trees and the Virgin at prayer (arms open) flanked by two archangels. In the alcove of the apse sits a majestic Madonna and Child, painted in 1038. Non-figurative mosaics dating from the 780s bear witness to the iconoclastic period (726-883), during which the veneration of holy images was outlawed. A few frescoes remain on the arches of the narthex. Painted in the ^11th century, they depict local monks and saints such as Theodora of Thessalonica, a ^9th-century nun whose "miraculous" relics are preserved in the Agia Theodora monastery, rebuilt in 1935, a stone's throw away on Ermou Street. Outside, the Agia Sofia church retains the base of the old minaret. To the south are the catacombs and the Timios Prodromos (St. John the Baptist) baptistery: closed for renovation in 2024, the site includes a Roman fountain (visible from the street) converted into a Christian baptismal font and a^5th-century underground chapel.