St. Georg Arrenagogeiou
The Church of St. Georg Arrenagogeiou (also St. Georg tou Arrenagogeiou ; Greek Άγιος Γεώργιος του Αρρεναγωγείου St. George the Boys School ) is located in the town of Kos on the Greek island of Kos . It is dedicated to St. George.
The church belongs to the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kos and Nisyros , which in turn reports directly to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Opel ( Greek Οικουμενικό Πατριαρχείο Κωνσταντινουπόλεως Oikoumenikó Patriarcheío Konstantinoupoleos , Turkish İstanbul Rum Ortodoks Patrikhanesi , even Church of Constantinople Opel ) is a subordinate.
location
The church is now on the edge of the Agora (Chora) excavation site , about 5 meters above sea level. The sea is about 90 meters in a straight line to the northeast, the port of Kos about 230 meters northwest. To the northwestern Platia Platanou with the plane tree of Hippocrates , the Gazi Hasan Pasha Mosque , the Governor's Palace of Kos and the Hamam of Kos it is about 100 meters as the crow flies. The Neratzia fortress is located behind the Platia Platanou about 180 meters away.
The former cemetery chapel Panagia Gorgoepikoos has also been preserved nearby .
History and buildings
The church is located on the edge of what was later named the Agora (Chora) excavation site, which was originally the walled medieval city of Kos and was destroyed in an earthquake in 1933. The church dates from late Byzantine times.
It is a single-nave church with a semicircular apse , typical of the time , whose floor plan is almost square and which is covered by a large dome. The eight narrow windows in the dome and the four rectangular ones in the side walls illuminate the interior. The altar table in the bema consists of a marble tablet. On the northeast side of the church is the grave of Archbishop Gerasimos of Kos (1838) and his mother Anthoula, who died in 1811 of the plague epidemic that lasted in Kos until 1814 and was known as Proto Thanatiko .
According to records in the archives of the Metropolitan Region of Kos, this church was a branch church ( Metochion ) of the Church of St. Marina at the end of the 18th century . It stood in a fenced-in vineyard with farm buildings. A larger property with 14 houses and 3 shops was assigned to the church . According to a decision of the Metropolitan of Kos, Kyrillos , which has been preserved in the archive , in 1842 she contributed the income from the vineyard to a primary school for boys located here, which was run according to the monitorial system.
In 1882, when the Arrenagogeion (elementary school for boys) was founded following a resolution by the Kos municipality and with the approval of the Ottoman authorities, the church became part of the school and received the name St. Georg Arrenagogeiou (or St. Georg tou called Arrenagogeiou ).
Around this time, the family of Antonios Panteloglou , who belonged to the first council of elders (Demogerontia), appointed in 1843, took on responsibility for the care of the church. According to sources, the church was renovated in 1892 at the expense of his daughter Aikaterini , the wife of Alexios Thymanakis .
This church was one of the few buildings in Kos town that survived the earthquake that hit Kos on April 23, 1933 (the feast day of St. George). The boys' school building, however, was destroyed at that time.
The island of Kos was occupied by Italy from 1912 to 1943 , which ended the 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire over Kos and the very extensive self-government of the island and made significant structural changes. As the church survived the earthquake relatively well, it was not razed like others to implement the occupiers' plans for new construction or to enable archaeological excavations.
The earthquake of 20./21. July 2017 the church also survived.
Individual evidence
- ↑ All information according to the information board on site.
- ^ Italian Architects and Scholars in the Levant. The case of Rhodes and the Dodecanese Islands under the Italian Fascist Rule , p. 94.
- ^ Recent earthquake. Department of Geophysics and Geothermics, University of Athens , July 20, 2017, accessed July 26, 2017 (English, Seismological Records).
Coordinates: 36 ° 53 ′ 37.9 ″ N , 27 ° 17 ′ 31 ″ E