Church of Agia Aikaterini

Church of Saint Catherine, Plaka

Surrounded by trees, located in the most touristic district of Athens, in Plaka, emerges proud the Church of Saint Catherine, sheltering the history of ten plus centuries. 

According to Travlos, the church of Saint Catherine, was built on ruins of an early Christian basilica and, in fact, he holds that the Roman-era columns which are preserved in the courtyard formed the atrium of the then church. Prior to the original early Christian church on the site pre-existed an ancient pagan sanctuary to the honour of Goddess Artemis. 

The core of the present church, at the junction of Cherefondos, Lysicratous, Galanou and Goura Streets, was erected in the middle of the 11^th century and originally it was dedicated to Saint Theodores.  In the 18^th century it was conceded, with the consent of the Metropolitan of Athens Bartholomew, to the Mount Sinai Monastery, and ever since it is honored in the name of Saint Catherine. 

Despite that Saint Catherine’s church had been included among the monasteries which had to be dissolved, by virtue of a decree of 1834, until 1839 it was in the possession of the Sinai fathers and functioned as a dependency [metochion] of the Monastery of Saint Catherine of Sina. Yet, following a petition of the parishioners of the proximal area as also the consenting opinion of the Metropolitan of Athens and the Municipality, Saint Catherine was converted from a katholikon of the dependency to a parish church. 

The condition of the church, either owing to the damage it had sustained during the course of the 1821 Revolution, or owing to the earthquake of 1837 had been nothing but sound and hence the execution of restoration works was judged as necessary. The works were completed with the economic contribution as well as the volunteer personal work of the parishioners themselves, among them also General Makrygiannis, who resided in proximity to the church and was a parishioner of Saint Catherine. 

The original Byzantine church of the 11^th century, typologically, fell within the cross–in–square inscribed complex four–columned churches, yet, in the course of following years, the original shape of the church changed to a large degree. As witnessed by a photograph of the era, initially, at the end of the western cross arm there was a single–light belltower, which existed up to and including the year 1870. 

Subsequently, the church was extended with the addition of an ambulatory around the original Byzantine core of the church resulting in reamings in the original Byzantine masonries of the northern, southern, and western exterior surface of the church. Also, the construction of the ambulatory necessitated also the transport of the belltower from the western arm of the original church to the southwestern corner of the ambulatory. 

The original Byzantine Athenian dome has not been preserved. The dome that the visitor beholds today, is significantly taller and more voluminous in relation to the original, it is dated between the years 1917 and 1927 and is constructed from six–fired bricks, which at the upper part of the dome are positioned cuneately and from the middle of its height and below they are positioned with alternating vertical and horizontal layers. 

Externally, at the eastern side, the holy bema ends into three cloisonné apses, of which the right and the left bear a single–light window each, while the middle apse has three continuous single–light apsidal cloisonné windows. 

At some points, such as at the southern cross arm, the masonry of the Byzantine phase of the church is visible as well as the cufic ornaments which survive until this day. Visible is also the mixed stonework at the lower part of the conch of the Sanctuary, which manifests differences in relation to the residual church and probably belongs to a previous building phase of the church. In particular, within the rectangulated stones, in many cases, there do not intermediate continuous horizontal brick rows while in the vertical joints intermediate two rows of horizontally positioned bricks. 

At the two interior eastern columns two early Christian capitals are preserved. The church is triune, with the right chapel being honored to the memory of Saint Antony and the left being dedicated to Saint Sophia and to her three daughters. The Holy Altars of the church and of the chapels are comprised of marble slabs on ancient architectural members while at the drum of the column of the Holy Altar of the Sanctuary an inscription is also preserved. 

Noteworthy are the portable icons decorating the church, such as the one of Saint John the Baptist of the 15^th century, work of the Cretan School and the icon of Saint Spyridon of the 18^th century, work of the Eptanisian style. Also, the icon of Saint Catherine stands out at the right marble shrine which is dated from the 17^th century. 

The silver vesture of the six icons of the templon is a work of the best silversmithing houses of the city of Athens, while the religious painting of the church was implemented in the 19^th century by Kafis or Kafetzidakis.