Acheiropoietos basilica, Thessaloniki also known as “Church of the Virgin Mary Acheiropoietos, Thessaloniki”
Creators: name: Toumpouri, Marina
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2022

description: The church of the Acheiropoietos (meaning not made by hands in Greek), dedicated to the Mother of God is located to the south-eastern part of the city of Thessaloniki (Northern Greece). It was called thus because it housed a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary Hodegetria. The church built in the third quarter of the 5th century is the oldest among those of the city of Thessaloniki still standing and it was constructed on a Roman public baths complex, parts of which are still visible underneath and around the building. The monument was repaired during the 7th century, after the earthquake of 620-630, while the other important phase of interventions dates to the late Byzantine period (14th-15th centuries). After the Ottoman conquest of Thessaloniki in 1430, the church was converted into a mosque, called “Eski Camii”. A minaret was added in the southwest corner. After the city’s liberation in 1912 it was again converted into a church and the minaret was demolished. Acheiropoietos is a three-aisled timber-roofed basilica with galleries above the two lateral aisles, measuring 51.90 m by 30.80 m. The side exterior walls are 14 m high, while the top of the roof of the central aisle lies at a height of 22 m. The building was initially larger, as indicated by the initial exonarthex to the west, the western gallery, the outer portico to the north and the skylight of the central aisle that do not survive today. The modern roof of the church, which is lower than the original was rebuilt. The central nave, which ends at the semi-circular sanctuary with the synthronon and the bishop’s throne, is divided from the lateral aisles by two marble colonnades. To the east side of the north aisle was added in the Middle Byzantine period the chapel of saint Irene. Traces of the staircase leading to the galleries are still preserved in the north-west corner of the basilica, while the annex of the south side is thought to have been the baptistery. The floors of the central, the south aisles and of the chapel of saint Irene are covered by slabs of marble from the time of the church. Part of the mosaics that have belonged to the earlier bath-house still survive beneath the floor of the north aisle. Fragments of the 5th-century mosaic decoration that includes crosses, geometric patterns, plants, fishes and birds, chalices and baskets are still preserved: i) in the colonnade intrados on the ground floor and south gallery; ii) in the narthex; and iii) in the window of the west wall. Their dating was based on the inscription on the intrados of the south and central arch of the tribelon that mentions the donor of the mosaics (and maybe also of the basilica), Andreas, identified as the priest who participated at the Council of Chalcedon of 451, representing the Archbishop of Thessaloniki. More recently it was suggested that Andreas was probably an Archbishop of Thessaloniki. The wall above the south colonnade is adorned with frescoes from the first decades of the 13th century. From the composition, which was depicting the Forty martyrs of Sebasteia, only eighteen of the figures have survived. They are represented either full-length or in bust wearing military uniform, each holding a cross. At either end of the row of martyrs was painted a candlestick with a lighted candle. Small traces of wall-paintings are also preserved in the chapel of saint Irene. The monolithic ambo, fragments of the mosaics and the sculptural decoration of Acheiropoietos basilica are exhibited at the Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki.