A few meters from the central “portara” of Thessaloniki, very close to the walls of the Acropolis, a completely unknown temple of the Paleologian period and a dense cemetery of the same era, were found in a rescue excavation of a plot. The announcement of this unique and extremely rare find, which completes the history of the city, was made at a conference with the participation of Greek Byzantineologists, which is ongoing in Komotini.

The announcement concerning the Acropolis of Thessaloniki was made by the Scientifically Responsible Archaeologist Aikaterini Kousoulas and the Archaeologists Anastasia Linda and Charilaos Guidis. According to her, most of the eastern part of the sanctuary, frescoes, a cemetery with about 60 burials and offerings, as well as several coins that help to date the temple, were uncovered.

Paleologian temple on the Acropolis of Thessaloniki

The wall of the alcove of the sacred Step, which was saved at a sufficient height, is externally multifaceted, made of stones and plinths, many of which are sealed with crosses. Internally, the polygonal niche in the second phase was remodeled into a curved wall.

Both on the surface of the curved wall and in the niche of the Proposition, part of the pictorial decoration was revealed in good condition. In fact, from the illustration the lower part of the representation of the Extreme Humiliation of Christ was preserved, where the fingers of the Lord’s crossed hands can be seen, as well as part of his forearms and body.

From the illustration of the arch of the sanctuary, the representation of Melismus has been preserved fragmentarily, in which prelates with elaborate liturgical vestments and angels with rich clothes are represented in the special and full of theological concepts Melismus scene.

Many fragments of luxurious frescoes from the sanctuary area were found within the destruction layer of the alcove and it is observed that several of them are coated with gold leaf, which shows their high artistic value. From these cracks it was possible to partially reconstruct the icon of the Virgin Platytera – a masterpiece of the second decade of the 14th century, which undoubtedly adorned the upper fresco zone of the niche.

At a very short distance from the hagiographed wall of the niche, the brick, cubic Holy Altar itself was revealed.

Paleologue period cemetery with dozens of burials and offerings

Simple in form, but elaborate burials of the inhabitants of the Byzantine acropolis, complete the unique findings of today’s Stergiou Polydorou Street. This dense cemetery provides particularly valuable information, not only because it completes the image of the temple to which it belongs, but also because so far no find of a similar extent is known inside the Acropolis.

Burials in overlapping layers were investigated at the excavation site. These are infant, child and adult burials. The burial may be accompanied by iron stones, oysters, coals, lead plates, Charonian obols, while from the items of clothing and adornment of the dead, copper studs, rings, simple copper buttons and others with decoration and gilding were found, proving that the burials were carried out with the worldly clothes of the dead and indeed the best they possessed.

Of particular interest are two burials of particularly large men, whose height reaches two meters, and the burial of a pregnant woman, where bones and the skull of a fetus in the position of childbirth were found in the place of the pelvis.

The finds reveal their dating

Based on the overall excavation image as well as the numismatic evidence from closed ensembles of the tombs and the building that included Latin imitations and cuts of Michael VIII Palaiologos (1261-1281), it can be stated that the cemetery and the temple with a polygonal niche were founded around the middle of the 13th century

However, this original building was destroyed and experienced a second construction phase at the beginning of the 14th century, as can be deduced from the excavation data, the hagiographic decoration, and the numismatic testimonies. However, even this temple, in its second phase, also did not have a particularly long life, since coins and ceramics reveal the radical destruction and burial around the beginning of the 15th century, during the turbulent times when Byzantine Despots and Ottoman Sultans successively occupied Thessaloniki until the final consumption by the latter.