Athens - Little Mitropolis Church

(Local Name: Mikri Mitrópolis) 12th C. Little Mitrópolis, a tiny domed cruciform church only 11m/36ft long by 7m/23ft wide, is dedicated to the Panayía Gorgoepikoós (the Mother of God as the Swift Hearer of Prayer) and St Eleutherius, both of whom offer help to women in childbirth. This Christian church thus continues an ancient tradition, since the sanctuary of the Greek goddess Eileithyia, likewise the patroness of childbirth, was also located here.

It is known as the Mitrópolis because it belonged to the monastery of St Nicholas, the residence of the metropolitans (archbishops) of Athens in the 18th and early 19th C. The monastery was destroyed in 1827, during the war of independence, and its site is now occupied by the Great Mitrópolis.

The church is unique in that it is not built of the usual dressed stone and brick but of fragments taken from ancient and medieval buildings. Above the entrance can be seen two parts of an ancient calendar frieze (arranged in the wrong order) with relief representations of the months, flanked by two pilaster capitals. Elsewhere are a variety of figural reliefs, including a figure of Cybele enthroned (in pediment on east side), fragments of funerary aediculae, etc. Many of the ancient fragments have been "Christianized" by having crosses carved on them. Compared with the fascination and charm of the exterior, the interior of the church, restored in recent years, is of little interest.