ΧΡΙΣΤΙΑΝΙΚΑ ΜΝΗΜΕΙΑ Ι.Μ.Ι.Σ. ENG

The –presently dissolved– monastery of the All-Holy Virgin Faneromeni [‘She who
is Revealed’] is located at a distance of twelve kilometres to the north of the
settlement of Skopi. Until recently, it was a dependency of the Monastery of Toplou. Built
on the west corner of the gorge of Skopi, the monastery develops on two levels. On the
HOLY MONASTERY
OF FANEROMENI
AT SKOPI
80
rock, apses communicating with each
other. The inscription in archaic language
and in six elegiac couplets, engraved in
marble, on the entrance of the church
mentions its establishment by the monk
Ioannikios and its restoration by the monk,
Gennadios Galeros, in June of 1620. The
church has wall painting decoration in two
phases quite damaged, possibly of the
14th-15th centuries, with scenes from the
Christological and Marian cycles. The uncial
upper level, in the shape of an L, the building complex, which
consists of simple ground floor buildings, mainly of the 18th
century, is developed. A small, single-nave catholicon rises on
the lower level, which belongs to the rare – for Crete – plan of
the double-apse church with both, partially carved in the natural
The dedicatory inscription.
inscription with the kontakion of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, on the west wall of the church,
which probably relates to the depicted saints below it, relevant to the theology and
restoration of icons, deserves special reference.
The original three-aisled church, dedicated to St. John, the All-Holy Virgin and the
Holy Trinity is the result of three successive interpolations to a single-nave, domed
church of the middle Byzantine period. The church was expanded in the period of Venetian
occupation with the addition of the south aisle, dedicated today to St. Charalambos. The
two existing aisles were extended to the west in the 19th century
and the north aisle was added at the same time, dedicated to the
Holy Trinity. Three new doorframes were opened on the west
side of the church, one for each aisle, of which the central one
was formed monumentally being the base for the twin-lobed, tall,
belfry. The church preserves wall painting decoration in its interior
SAINT
JOHN THE
THEOLOGIAN
AT MESA MOULIANA
only in the apse of the sanctuary, which probably dates to the 14th century. The Deesis
is depicted on the semi-dome of the apse and, on the semi-circle, five hierarchs with
multi-cross chasubles who hold closed Gospels as well as St. Jacob, in the north corner,
who appears to be accompanying the hierarchs, turned facing right, wearing the garment
of an apostle and not of a hierarch as we find him in corresponding representations.
81