page_title: Monastery of Panagia Molyvdoskepastos
section_title: Architecture of the Catholicon
hierarchical_section_title: Monastery of Panagia Molyvdoskepastos / Architecture of the Catholicon
caption_attribution_description: Ελληνικά: Άποψη της Ιεράς Μονής Παναγίας Μολυβδοσκεπάστου English: View of Molyvdoskepastos monastery
context_page_description: The Monastery of Panagia Molyvdoskepastos is a male Greek Orthodox monastery at Molyvdoskepastos, near Konitsa, Epirus, in North Western Greece.
context_section_description: The catholicon of the monastery features a unique architectural style which evolved with the gradual increase of the Monastery’s needs, both liturgical and practical. This architectural particularity also appears in the way the iconographic cycles were organized on the church walls. The original catholicon, according to an inscription attributed to its founder, was built by the Emperor Constantine Pogonatos. More specifically, the existing catholicon underwent three architectural phases of modification.
  1st phase: During the 11th and 12th centuries the original church was rebuilt into a small cross–plan church with three vaults and a dome.
  2nd phase: At the end of the 13th century and in the beginning of the 14th the middle cross vaulted section was added by the megas doux Andronikos Komnenos Palaiologos. At about the same time two chapels were added: that of old Timios Prodromos (Saint John the Baptist) in the south, and Agia Paraskevi (Saint Paraskevi) in the north.
  3rd phase: Around the year 1521 inhabitants of the nearby village old Pogoniani carried out renovations to the catholicon and added a large narthex (the Lite) consisting of three parts.
caption: Panagia Molyvdoskepastos
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