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Inter-faith relations and their spatial representation in the Late Medieval Aegean: the double-apsed churches of Kythnos in the Western Cyclades
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 December 2022
Abstract
This article discusses the double-apsed churches (single-naved churches with two high altars) of Kythnos in the western Cyclades. The reasons for this uncommon configuration, although much debated, are not entirely clear. According to local tradition, during the period of Latin rule (thirteenth–seventeenth centuries) double-apsed churches were designed to accommodate both Orthodox and Catholic liturgies, or even some combination of the two. Combining information from written sources with architectural surveys at Oria Kastro, the island's ruined medieval capital, an attempt is made here to document Kythnos’ double-apsed churches and identify how these small provincial monuments reflect socio-religious conditions and inter-faith relations in the late medieval Aegean.
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- Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham
References
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5 According to G. Dimitrokallis there are no more than two hundred examples recorded in the global bibliography; 48 of them are in the Cyclades, see G. Dimitrokallis, Οι δίκογχοι χριστιανικοί ναοί (Athens 1976) 160−78 and Παραδοσιακή ναοδομία στην Τήνο (Athens 2004) 47.
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15 That was very common in many other island settlements, e.g. Paroikia on Paros; see A. Orlandos, ‘Οι μεταβυζαντινοί ναοί της Πάρου’, in Αρχείον Βυζαντινών Μνημείων της Ελλάδος, vol. 8 (Athens 1961) 119−21.
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22 Dimitrokallis, Παραδοσιακή ναοδομία στην Τήνο, 47.
23 Messaria has not been subject to systematic study, so only hypotheses regarding the evolution of the settlement can be made.
24 Vallindas, Ιστορία της νήσου Κύθνου, 51
25 Op.cit., 41−2.
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28 According to Dimitrokallis, Tenos has twenty examples, Santorini five, Sifnos three; Paros, Andros, Mykonos and Serifos only one each. Naxos according to a more recent study has ten, K. Aslanidis, ‘Βυζαντινή Ναοδομία στη Νάξο. Η μετεξέλιξη από την Παλαιοχριστιανική στη Μεσοβυζαντινή Αρχιτεκτονική’, PhD Thesis, University of Patras 2014, 312.
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30 P. Zerlentis, Ιστορικαί έρευναι περί τα εκκλησίας των νήσων της Ανατολικής Μεσογείου θαλάσσης (Ermoupolis 1913) 15, 43; see also S. Simeonidis, Σιφνιακά, Επετηρίς της ιστορικής ύλης της Σίφνου 11 (Athens 2003) 5, and A. Kasdagli, ‘Custom, tradition and “the law” in the post-medieval Cyclades’, in M. Rhoads (ed.), Imperial Lineages and Legacies in the Eastern Mediterranean: recording the imprint of Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule (Farnham 2017) 49−60 (53). Some scholars have even suggested that Greeks were prohibited from building new Orthodox churches during the Latinokratia; see G. Dimitrokallis, ‘Βυζαντινοί και Μεταβυζαντινοί ναοί στη Σίφνο’, Proceedings of the 2nd international Sifnean symposium, Sifnos 27−30 June 2002, vol. 2 (Athens 2002) 33−96 (33).
31 The Gozzadini gradually expanded their rule over Anaphe, Sifnos, a part of Kea, Pholegandros, Sikinos, Gyaros, Kimolos and Polyaigos.
32 Slot, Archipelagus Turbatus, 115.
33 B. Slot, ‘Καθολικαί εκκλησίαι Κιμώλου και των πέριξ νήσων. Ιστορία των Δυτικών ναυτικών κοινοτήτων των ΝΔ Κυκλάδων και των Εκκλησιών των (1600−1893)’, Kιμωλικά 5 (1974) 51−295 (105).
34 Miller, The Latins in the Levant, 628−30.
35 Ersch and Grüber, Allgemeine Encyclopädie, 420.
36 Vallindas, Ιστορία της νήσου Κύθνου, 45−6.
37 Op.cit., 52−3.
38 Only one icon of Virgin Mary with a bilingual inscription (ΜΗΡ-ΘΥ ΙΗ. ΧΡΙ. ΖΩΟΔΟΧΟΣ ΠΗΓΗ and MATER DEI CHRISTUS AQUA RU…) was still preserved in Vallindas’ time in St Panteleimon in Messaria; op.cit., 53.
39 After 1566 when the Duchy islands were either annexed or became tributary to the Porte, the Orthodox Sees were reinstated. The Catholic church fell gradually into decline not only due to the shortage of priests but also because it failed to become legally recognized by the Turkish state. An official document (berat) issued by the sultan was required to maintain the functions and properties of both rites, but contrary to the Orthodox most Catholic prelates did not manage to acquire it; see Slot, ‘Καθολικαί εκκλησίαι Κιμώλου’, 57.
40 Op.cit., 120.
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43 See M. Mersch, ‘Churches as ‘shared spaces’ in the Eastern Mediterranean (fourteenth to fifteenth centuries)’, in G. Christ et al. (eds), Union in Separation, Diasporic Groups and Identities in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100−1800) (Rome 2015) 461−84 for fourteenth and fifteenth-century evidence from Euboea, the Morea, Cyprus and Crete; Gratziou, Η Κρήτη στην ύστερη μεσαιωνική εποχή, 127−83 for textual and material evidence from fourteenth to seventeenth-century Crete; Sarou, ‘Περί μεικτών ναών Ορθόδοξων και Καθολικών εν Χίω’, 194−208 for archival evidence from Chios; D. Lappa, ‘Ma pure vi è questa strada di mezzo: Χριστιανοί του Ανατολικού Δόγματος στην πόλη της Βενετικής Κέρκυρας: Μια θρησκευτικότητα της μεθορίου (16ος-18ος αι.)’, Μνήμων 36 (2019) 83–118 for evidence from Corfu; Cruikshank Dodd, Medieval Painting in the Lebanon, for twelfth and thirteenth-century examples from Lebanon, Palestine and Syria.
44 Cherry, J. F., Davis, J. L. and Mantzourani, E. (eds), Landscape Archaeology as Long-Term History: Northern Keos in the Cycladic Islands (Los Angeles 1991) 353Google Scholar; M. Kontilieris, Νάξος (Athens 1929) 52.
45 M. Foskolos, Τηνιακά Ανάλεκτα, vol. 4 (Athens 2000) 226, 246, 254−5.
46 Op.cit., 257, 259, 277.
47 Op.cit., 230.
48 M. Gedeon, Κανονικαί Διατάξεις, Επιστολαί, Λύσεις, Θεσπίσματα των Αγιωτάτων Πατριαρχών Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, από Γρηγορίου τοῦ Θεολόγου μέχρι Διονυσίου του από Αδριανουπόλεως, vol. 1 (Constantinople 1888) 252−4; Foskolos, Τηνιακά Ανάλεκτα, 231−2, 285−8.
49 See Foskolos, Τηνιακά Ανάλεκτα, 257−8, 265−6, and Dimitrokallis, Παραδοσιακή ναοδομία στην Τήνο, 56, 33, 45.
50 Slot, ‘Καθολικαί εκκλησίαι Κιμώλου’, 117−21.
51 Miller, The Latins in the Levant, 628, 635−6; Saulger, L'Histoire nouvelle des anciennes ducs et autres souverains de l'Archipel, 191.
52 A N. Rottas (1789) is buried in St Sabbas and G. Mazarakis (nineteenth century) in St John; Dimitrokallis, Οι δίκογχοι χριστιανικοί ναοί, 163, 173.
53 Gratziou, Η Κρήτη στην ύστερη μεσαιωνική εποχή, 178−9.
54 To my knowledge, on the other main islands of the Gozzadini, Kea and Sifnos just one and three double-apsed churches respectively have been recorded: see Cherry, Davis and Mantzourani, Landscape Archaeology as Long-Term History, 353 and Dimitrokallis, Οι δίκογχοι χριστιανικοί ναοί, 179−88. However, unlike Oria, the kastra of these islands have evolved into modern settlements and are still in use, so radical alterations may have taken place over the years. Further research may perhaps identify more double-apsed churches.
55 For relevant examples from Crete and Chios, see Gratziou, Η Κρήτη στην ύστερη μεσαιωνική εποχή, 180−2; Sarou, ‘Περί μεικτών ναών Ορθόδοξων και Καθολικών εν Χίω’, 200.
56 O. Vavatsioulas, ’Το κάστρο της Νάξου: οικοδομική ιστορία’, PhD thesis, National Technical University of Athens 2007, 101.
57 Shared use of the altar (albeit unwillingly on the part of the Orthodox) is documented as early as 1215 at the Lateran IV Council, Alberigo, G., Melloni, A. (eds), Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Generaliumque Decreta II/1 (Bologna 2013) 169Google Scholar.
58 Slot, ‘Καθολικαί εκκλησίαι Κιμώλου’, 89.