Church of Pammegistoi Taxiarches

The Byzantine church of the Pammegistoi Taxiarches Michael and Gabriel is located on the hill above the traditional settlement of Ano Taxiarches, at a distance of 15 km from Zacharo in Ilia. South of the church there is a stone threshing floor, while nearby there is a second Byzantine church, Agios Andreas (St. Andrew).

Architecturally, the church belongs to the single-aisled cross-in-square type and ends in a three-sided apse to the east. The monument does not preserve an inscription with the exact date of its erection, however the church is mentioned in the register of church property in the period 1697 – 1700. The scholars of the church place its dating at the end of the 13th c. until the first decades of the 14th c.

Inside the church, the built altar is preserved, while in the northeast there is a stone slab for use as a prothesis. No parts of the mural decoration or the altar screen are preserved. It is noteworthy that at the base of the pendentives of the dome, are visible the mouth openings of the acoustic vessels, a technique that the Byzantines used to utilize in the construction of churches for better acoustics. The floor is paved with black and white square tiles reminiscent of a chessboard, while in the center there is a depiction of colorful floral motifs.

Over time, due to weather and human interventions, the monument began to deteriorate. According to the testimonies of the habitants, in the first decades of the 20th c. various interventions were carried out at the church: cleaning the roof of the vegetation causing damage to the masonry, replacing the floor with new tiles, replacing the roof of the dome with a concrete one, making an effort to repair the masonry, etc. Since 2011, the 6th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities started small restoration works on the monument, while in 2019 the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia completed the works of consolidation and highlighting the church.
 

Copyediting: Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia