BYZANTINE MONUMENTS
IN THE ENVIRONS OF SERRES
ELAIONAS
The exterior apse of the church. The village of Elaionas lies some 9 km to the north-east of the city of Serres, and some 90 minutes on foot from the Monastery of the Timios Prodromos. Set in beautiful countryside with abundant water, the village is built at an altitude of 400 metres. In times gone by, the village was a very popular resort for the people of Serres, and was known as Dutli (in Turkish, dut means mulberry) due to the masses of mulberry bushes there used to be in the area, along with olive and other fruit-bearing trees. Post-Byzantine sources refer to the village as Gorianis. The church of Agios Nikolaos stands on what is now the village square. It is quite small for a Byzantine church, measuring 5.7 by 5.8 metres without the apse. The church is cruciform in shape with a dome, and is of a four-column design.
The Byzantine church of Agios Nikolaos in Elaionas. The view from the north-east. The dome is large, covering a significant part of the church, and is supported on the four columns and the arches between them. The apse is a continuation of the eastern section of the cross. There is an undulating double crenellated cornice around the outside of the octagonal dome and the three-sides of the apse. The church was constructed using bricks with added wood for support, while the dome is built entirely of bricks.The ugly narthex, added to its western side in 1851, along with the recently added concrete roof serve to considerably reduce the church's original aesthetic appeal.The interior of the church has, for the most part, been replastered in the modern era and is covered in frescoes painted at the beginning of the century. However, in late 1970 the upper half of an original wall icon was discovered under a thick layer of plaster on the church's eastern wall, just to the left of the vestry niche. The accompanying inscription declares the fresco to be of Saint Damian.
It is not in very good condition. The saint is depicted full length and full-face, and is in an upright pose. He has a bag of tools in his left hand. As far as the iconographic style is concerned, Professor E. Tsigaridas, who discovered and researched the picture, upholds that it was painted in accordance with older prototypes. From a technical point of view, he ascribes it to a local secular workshop. Stylistically speaking, during our research, we noticed a close resemblance with the rock painting of the Virgin (1382) in neighbouring Oinousa, both in the lines of the folds in the cloth, and the attempt to portray the weight of the face with the lines under the eyes.Recent support work on the monument necessitated the removal of large sections of the Twentieth Century frescoes from the inside of the church, which brought to light a further four paintings on the original layer of plaster; three saints on the southern wall, and Saint John the Baptist in the vestry apse.The design of the church, along with most of its characteristics, are those of the Constantinople school. It most probably dates from the Twelfth Century.
OINOUSA
Oinousa lies some 7 kilometres east of the city of Serres at an altitude of 130 metres on the slopes of Mount Menoikios. It became an administrative entity for the first time in 1927, but is now part of the Municipality of Serres.
The rock icons: Just 1.5 kilometres north of Oinousa (known during Byzantine times as Trevesaina, and later on as Dervesiani) is a spot known locally as Faneromeni (which means "the place of revelation"). A Byzantine icon has been painted onto the steep limestone southern face of Vlaselnikos Hill some 5.5 metres above ground, and sheltered by a natural ledge in the rock above. It depicts the Panagia Odigitria holding Christ on her right arm, flanked by the two Archangels. The fresco is now in very bad condition, due both to ill-treatment and the weather.The central figure of the Virgin, depicted in her full magnificence, is represented from the chest up. She is holding Christ with her right arm, her left hand resting on her breast. Her body is slightly turned towards the holy infant, and her head is gently bowed. Her left shoulder is slightly raised in a natural way.Christ - portrayed here as an infant - is presented full-length in three-quarters view. He is seated comfortably on the right arm of his Mother. His left hand is raised in a gesture of blessing, while he is probably holding a piece of brocade in his left hand.The two winged archangels-in-waiting are positioned symmetrically to the left and right of the Virgin (Michael to the right, and Gabriel to the left, in accordance with Byzantine protocol). They are depicted from the knee up in an upright position, their bodies slightly raised but painted on a smaller scale. Their arms are bent under the weight of a sceptre, which they are holding at chest height and which turns into a cross in its upper sections. With their other hands, they are offering up a blue sphere which symbolises the world as a whole. The surface of the sphere - which has only survived on the side of the Archangel Gabriel - is decorated with the monogram representing Christ.
The seven verse inscription painted straight onto the surface of the rock on the western side of the icon, although misspelled and hard to read, clearly gives the exact date of its creation - 6890 years from the Creation of the World, which is to say in the year of our Lord 1382. The inscription reads as follows: "Ιστορήθη η αγία εικων της αγί/ας Θεοτόκου δια συνδρο/μης και εξόδου ιερομονάχου/ του Νικήτα, υιος και υιου αυτου/ ιερέως Χριστοδούλου/ 6890 ετους./ Χειρ του Κασταμονίτου", which translates as: "Depicts the holy icon of the Virgin Mother, paid for and with the help of the monk Nikitas, who was the son of the priest Christodoulos, and his son, in the year 6890 by the hand of Kastamonitis".The holy water: The presence of a natural cavity just below the out-door icon reveals its liturgical character. The trickle of water is clearly that of the blessed healing spring of the Virgin which, in all probability, was in use prior to the painting of the icon. The holy well probably owes its existence to a divine revelation - probably by the Virgin - in this very spot; this interpretation is clearly supported by the name of the area - "the place of revelation". The water - which drips into the cavity drop by drop from a crack in the rock after the first rains of autumn - is believed by the faithful to be the tears of the Virgin. The water is therefore accredited with miracle-working properties. Pilgrims still visit the site to pay their respects and hang items of their clothing or their handkerchiefs - known as the "tzatzala" - on near-by bushes because, according to a folk tradition, once the sufferer has been treated with the holy water, their illness is transferred to inanimate objects in a way presenting no danger to others.Of course, the decision to represent the Virgin and Child with the two archangels in the icon above the holy water was not a random one. The decision to transfer this particular iconographic configuration from its normal position in the niche of the Sanctuary to the bare rock was undoubtedly of symbolic significance. Just as that particular section of the church unites the roof with the floor, like "a bridge that spans the divide between Earth and heaven", in other words linking Earth to Heaven; in the same way it was the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Christ - She who was to reconcile the Creator with His creations; She who was to bridge the chasm created by Eve and play an active part in the salvation of the world - that was chosen once again to convey the prayers of the, in the main sick, worshippers to God.
Built on flat land in the shadow of the southern foothills of Mount Menoikios, some 1,300 metres south of the hamlet of Oinousa (Byzantine Trevesaina), is a late Byzantine single-nave renovated church (internal measurements: 4.5 by 5.23 metres including the apses). It has three apses in all, and a dome. All the apses appear semicircular from the exterior. From 1341 on, it was in all probablity connected to the catholikon of Agios Nikolaos - known as the Xanthopoulou - a monastic dependency of the near-by Monastery of the Agion Anargyron in Chionochori, itself the property of the Athonite Monastery of the Ibiroi.This place, known for its numerous water-mills during the Byzantine period, later became, in succession, a dependency of the Monastery of the Timios Prodromos of Serres, and a Turkish country estate. The monument remained buried under meters of earth and covered in thick vegetation until 1953. In 1956, it was dug out and renovated in a clumsy manner, its roof being replaced by a concrete slab.A few fragments of the original wall paintings remained on the eastern section of the Sanctuary apse until recent times. It is said that the modern representation of the Virgin on the apse frieze was an exact copy of the original on which it was over-painted. The same is said about the icons in the small recess in the northern side of the Sanctuary and the arch over the lintel of the Western exonarthex. The inscription stating the date of the church's foundation on the modern marble plaque south of the entrance has no firm basis in historical records.
