The projects of the Church of Our Lady of Achirimititos executed by the Ministry of Culture through the Ephorate of Antiquities of Thessaloniki are in full swing.

The project provides for the improvement of accessibility, the formation-demonstration of the immediate surroundings, the restoration of the stone-built enclosure and the replacement of most of its rails, in order to ensure the smooth view of the monument. The project, budget 500,000 eurosfunded by the Ministry of Culture with resources of the recovery fund.

“The Church of Our Lady of Achirozite owes its name to the image of the Virgin Mary, which According to delivery she hadn’t painted her man hand. Under this name, the monument appears, in a gold bullion of Michael I ‘. It is an exquisite architecture of the late 5th century. and a major monument of Byzantine art of Thessaloniki. Her mosaics, decoration and portable images make up a treasury of Byzantine art. In 1988, the UNESCO included in the World Heritage List the Early Christian and Byzantine monuments of the city, including the Temple of Our Lady of Achirimitos’, the Minister of Culture said Lina Mendoni.

He also stressed that “The project, which is rapidly performed by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Thessaloniki, concerns the improvement of accessibility to the monument, the formation and promotion of its surroundings, its energy upgrading and its fire safety”, While stressing that “the aim is to be attributed to the Thessaloniki and visitors to the city at the beginning of 2026, lifted and completely prominent.”

The unholy, in its current form, is Representative sample of Early Byzantine BasilicaHellenistic type, with narthex and palate. Due to the symmetrical development of architecture, the morphological homogeneity of the sculpture decoration and the naturalistic style of preserved branches, the temple can be considered as the most main preserved architectural composition of late antiquity in Thessaloniki. Based on newer investigations, the Brazen was erected palateless In the late 5th or early 6th century. The palates, a non -preserved luminaire and extensive pilgrims, were added to the building in the middle of the 7th century, while extensive interventions in superstructure were repeated in the first half of the 9th century. In the early 13th century a monumental fresco of forty -eight martyrs was added to the southern aisle. Subsequent interventions after being converted into an Islamic wide in 1430, altered the form of the building, which took its definitive form during its restoration during the period 1909-1914.

The temple occupies a building block in the city center. The surrounding area of ​​the temple is bounded- on all four of its sides- by a stone-built, generally enclosure, which was built during the interwar period (1920-1940). It was repaired and raised in its northeast corner in the period after World War II. The pesets, dating to the second phase of the enclosure of the enclosure, in the first postwar period (1945-1949), are characterized by local disruption of their structure, while one of them in the southern part of the enclosure has already collapsed.