Rhodes - Discover the Unknown Rhodes

C H A P T E R 4
The central nave of
the church
The little museum
attached to the
church displays
holy relics, icons
and antique
manuscripts
The centre of the church, in the form of
a Latin cross and covered entirely with very
precious frescos, is also its most ancient part,
dating back to the fourteenth century. The
fresco cycles adopt the usual compositional
pattern of Byzantine-Orthodox art, but their
expressiveness, their colours and their
treatment of the sacred themes reveal the
originality and the passion of the artists who
created this work of extraordinary beauty.
Walking in the nave one has the impression of
being enveloped in a great Holy Book: here
there are the stories of Christ, of Mary, of the
saints and of their miracles, the cycle of the
Creation of the World in which God holds up an
enormous iris and separates the heavens from
the darkness. Some of the biblical stories are
very beautiful, including a cruel Expulsion from
Paradise and an expressive Sacrifice of Isaac,
and we see luminous armies of angels, but also
the legions of the Devil. The cycle illustrating
the Apocalypse of St. John is very interesting,
and features some terrifying details like the
Beast with Seven Heads, the Four Horsemen of
the Apocalypse and the demons and the
tortures of hell.
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