Paros - Cathedral

(Local Name: Ekatontapylianí) At the west end of the modern lower town of Parikía stands the Cathedral, the Ekatontapylianí ("hundred- gated") church, which was built in three stages between the fifth and seventh centuries. The name is a corruption of Katapolianí ("in the lower town"). The principal church (built in the second phase, about 600, re-using ancient stones) is a two-story domed cruciform church with a barrel-vaulted gallery for women (the oldest part, belonging to a fifth century basilica). The high altar is borne on two Doric column drums and has egg-and-dart molding of the sixth century B.C. In the semicircular apse are three tiers of stone benches for the clergy, with the bishop's throne in the