The Church of St. Demetrius in Pourko

St. Demetrius church. EARS TO HEAR, EYES TO SEE Kythira’s Byzantine Heritage: The Church of St. Demetrius in Pourko Sergei P. Brun Just a few miles to the south of Pelo- the most unique and exquisite of ponnesus, washed by waters of the Kythira’s Byzantine era shrines. The Aegean Sea, lies the isle of Kythira, the Church of St. Demetrius lies in the southernmost of the Ionian islands. village of Pourko, in the southwest- It doesn’t attract as many tourists as ern part of the island. A thirteenth better known destinations, such as century building, it consists of several Corfu or Zakynthos; it is a quiet (thus vaulted chambers and two domes, a bit rugged) resort popular among fused into a single temple complex. the Greeks, with very few foreign- The first and largest church—built in ers—mainly Australians, since many the early thirteenth century was con- Greek immigrants embarked from secrated in honor of St. Demetrius. this particular island in the late nine- To the north of that another chamber teenthth century to seek a better life and apse with an altar dedicated to Down Under. Yet the island is a won- the Theotokos was soon added. In the derful place—not only because of the following decades two more adjoin- clean, sky-blue beaches, the friendly ing churches were built, awkwardly people, the great local wines—but facing north, not east. These were also because it retains beautiful consecrated in honor of St. Nicholas monuments of Byzantine art—most and St. Basil the Great. This unparal- notably twelfth–fourteenth-century leled deviation from the canon, and churches and frescoes. Here are a a rare example of a four-church clus- few photos taken this summer at the ter, finds only one close analogy—the Church of St. Demetrius, perhaps Church of Panagia Drossiani on the The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 35 36 island of Naxos. Another canonical Pourko such depictions still exist in (left) Meeting of Our deviation—unique to Kythira—is the the apses of St. Demetrius’s altar and Lord in the Temple tradition of decorating the conch of the side altar of St. Nicholas—rep- the altar apse not with the images of resenting the warrior saint and the Christ or the Theotokos (which tradi- Archbishop of Myra respectively. The tionally evoke either the eschatolog- Church of St. Demetrius preserves ical or Old Testament themes), but four layers of frescoes, from the early with depictions of the patron saint of thirteenth to the sixteenth century. that particular church or altar. For ex- The earlier layers have been uncov- ample in the island’s Byzantine Mu- ered by restoration artists in the past seum in Kato Livadi (an incredible years. The thirteenth century murals collection and a “must see” for any- in the side altar of St. Nicholas pre- one visiting Kythira) one may find serve the iconographer’s autograph, a preserved conch with a thirteenth naming a certain deacon Demetrios. century fresco of St. Andrew, trans- Hagios Demetrios in indeed one of ferred to the museum from St. An- the most striking Byzantine churches drew’s church in the nearby town of in the Ionian Islands. And like the Livadi. Andrew’s brother—St. Peter island of Kythira itself, it deserves —is similarly depicted in a thirteenth far more attention than it has so far century church dedicated to him in received. These photographs were Chapel of the village of Arei. In the Church at taken in September of 2016. St. Demetrios The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 37 38 Chapel of St. Demetrios, details of the Crucifixion The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 39 Chapel of St. Nicholas. Chapel of the Theotokos.- general view. Chapel of St. Demetrios. 40 Chapel of the Theotokos. Chapel of St. Demetrios, Apostle Paul. Chapel of St. Demetrios. The Wheel 7 | Fall 2016 41 Apse of the Chapel of St. Demetrios. Chapel of St. Nicholas. Church of St. Demetrios: chapels of St. Basil and St. Nicholas. © 2016 The Wheel. May be distributed for Sergei P. Brun is a Russian historian specializing in the history of noncommercial use. the Latin East and the author of several articles, papers, and trans- www.wheeljournal.com lations, as well as the two-volume monograph The Byzantines and the Franks in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia (Moscow, 2015). Currently he is a research fellow and lecturer at the Museum of the Russian Icon in Moscow. 42.

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