Mon, Apr 20, 2020
Set in the main square of Afitos, the church of Agios Demetrios was built in 1858 on the ruins of an early Christian church. The Basilica of Agios Demetrios was built with locally quarried stone and is the largest Eastern Orthodox Christian church with a dome in Halkidiki. The church is open all day and the locals regularly attend services. The church was built over the ruins of an older church, also dedicated to the same saint and was destroyed in 1821 during the Holocaust of Kassandra along with the entire village. It is a three-aisled basilica with a dome, with built-in bell tower, narthex and courtyard. It was built by artisans from Northern Epirus along with the villagers’ help.
In the central aisle of the church there is the icon of Panagia Afitiotissa (Panagia Odigitria), a work of the 14th century from the workshop of the Chora Monastery in Constantinople. This image was registered by the 10th Ephorate in 1974. After the examination, the picture was found to be completely covered with a later painting layer and had little damage. The cleaning and aesthetic restoration was completed at the Ephorate Rehabilitation Laboratory in 2001. Previously, the technical characteristics of the image were diagnosed at the Diagnostic Center of the Evangelismos Monastery in Ormylia.
The restoration confirmed the wonderful technique of the image and is an example of the hagiographies from the Palaiologos. The Virgin is depicted from the middle and above, with the well-known type of Odigitria, holding the little Christ in her left hand, while her right hand is under the chest as a sign of “Deesis”. Christ blesses with his right hand and holds a handwritten roll on the left. Considering that the church of the village of Agios Dimitrios of Afyitos was burned down during the great destruction of Halkidiki in 1821 and re-established in 1859, it could be assumed that the icon was offered to the newly built temple by a monastery that had a stake in the area, the Megisti Lavra or Agios Panteleimonas.