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The Churches of Molyvdoskepastos

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Donald Nicol
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Extract

The village of Molyvdoskepastos stands on the north-eastern slopes of Mount Nemerçka (Merope) on the present Greek–Albanian frontier, above the valley where the Voiussa river is joined by the tributary of Sarandaporos, in the district of Pogoniani. The 19th-century travellers in Epirus and Albania seem to have passed it by as unworthy of their attentions, although the Rev. Thomas Smart Hughes (writing in 1820) remarks not only on the number of its churches ‘which appear to have been ruined and deserted for some centuries’, but also on the unparalleled incivility of its inhabitants. The character and hospitality of the villagers, despite their recent privations, appears to have improved in proportion to the steady deterioration of their homes and their ancient monuments.

The village was formerly called Dipalitsa, but its present name is derived from the monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin, situated in the valley below close by a small tributary of the Voiussa river, and it was through the influence of this monastery that the village attained its importance as the seat of the archbishopric of Pogoniani. The foundation of the monastery and the establishment of the archbishopric are associated with the name of the Emperor Constantine IV Pogonatos (A.D. 668–85), and the tradition is borne out by documentary evidence which may or may not have been invented to supplement the deficiencies of the historians. The name Pogoniani, if a Slav derivation be discounted, is easily linked with the title Pogonatos: and it is supposed that the Emperor stayed in the district when returning by an overland route to Constantinople after his defeat of the usurper Mizizios in Sicily in 668.

Type
Research Article
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 48 , November 1953 , pp. 141 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1953

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References

1 Hughes, Smart, Travels in Sicily, Greece and Albania (London, 1820), II 277–8.Google Scholar The writer confuses Dipalitsa with the neighbouring village of Ostanitsa.

2 Cf. Ἠπειρωτικά Χρονικά IV (1929), 18. It may be noted in this connexion that the Byzantine historians speak only of a naval expedition against Sicily. Cf. Theophanes, (ed. Boor) I, 352Google Scholar; George Hamartolos, Chronicon (ed. Muralt), 604–5.

3 The rhyme concerning the lead roof of Voulgareli is given by Lambros, in Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων II (1905), 290.Google Scholar

3a I am indebted to Professor R. Jenkins and Mr. S. J. Papastavrou for their help in elucidating this and the following inscriptions. I have adopted Professor Jenkins' suggestion that the Annus Mundi used in these churches is not 5508 but 5509 B.C.

4 Miklosich, and Müller, , Acta et Diplomata Graeca V 78.Google Scholar

5 Thalloczy, , Illyrisch–Albanische Forschungen I 174.Google Scholar (The village at the foot of the hill on which the church of Apollonia stands is called Pojani, elsewhere found as a corruption of the name Pogoniani.)

6 Published by Versakes, in AE 1916, 108 and 114.Google Scholar

7 Orlandos, , ΒυƷαντινὰ Μνημεῖα τῆς Ἄρτης (Athens, 1937), II 57 f. and 148 f.Google Scholar

8 Orlandos, , Ἀρχεῑον τῶν ΒυƷ. Μνημ. I (1935) 105, 121.Google Scholar

9 Orlandos, , Ἀρχεῑον IV (1938)) pt. ii, 125 f.Google Scholar

10 Millet, , L'Art serbe, 127, 129, 139–40.Google Scholar

11 Orlandos, , ΒυƷ. Μνημεῑα τῆς Ἄρτης II 70 f.Google Scholar

12 Evangelides, in Ἠπειρωτικὰ Χεονικά VI (1935), 5.Google Scholar

13 Orlandos, , Ἀρχεῑον I (1935), 5.Google Scholar

14 Filow, , Early Bulgarian Art 24.Google Scholar

15 Millet, , L'École grecque dans l'architecture byzantine 12 n. 5, and plate 107.Google Scholar

16 The fullest list of the Archbishops of Pogoniani (in which the date 1298 is assigned to the Holy Apostles church) is given by Mystakides, N. G. in the periodical Ἠπειρωτικὸς Ἀστὴρ (ἔτος α′ Athens, 1904), 132–5.Google Scholar A list from the 16th to the 19th centuries is published by Germanos, Metropolitan of Sardis, in Ἠπειρωτικὰ Χεονικὰ XII (1937), 93–5.Google Scholar Le Quien (Oriens Christianus II, cols. 93–4), mentions three Archbishops of the ‘Ecclesia Pogoianae’.

17 It is published by Mystakides in his list of the Archbishops of Pogoniani (loc. cit. n. 16).

18 Gelzer, , Eine Notitia der Türkenzeit (in Abhandlungen der philosoph.-philolog. Klasse der kngl.-bayer. Akademie der Wissenschaften XXI (1901), pt. III, 612, 630).Google Scholar

19 Cf. Mystakides, loc. cit. The Parthenios mentioned in the inscription in the Holy Apostles church (A.D. 1645) figures on the list published by Mystakides under the date A.D. 1643. Cf. also a document of the same date (September A.D. 1643) signed by Ghinos, clerk to the archbishop of Pogoniani, , mentioned in Ἠπειρωτικὰ Χεονικά XII 108.Google Scholar

20 von Lingenthal, Z., ‘Zur Kentniss der Notitiae Episcopatuum Graecorum’ (in Monatsberichte der kngl.-preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften, April, 1878) 279.Google Scholar

21 The three Patriarchal decrees relating to these various changes are published by Germanos, in Ἠπειρωτικὰ Χεονικά XII (1937), 84–93.Google Scholar

22 Anthimos appears in a document published by Sathas, (Bibliotheca Graeca Medii Aevi III 561)Google Scholar and also in the diocesan list compiled by Germanos (loc. cit.), though not in that published by Mystakides. A letter of Gabriel, archbishop of Pogoniani (fl. A.D. 1572 according to Mystakides), is published by Martin Crusius in his Turco-Graecia IV 337. Euthymios (archbishop A.D. 1702–8 according to Mystakides) is signatory to a document of March A.D. 1708 published in Gelzer's, Patriarchat von Achrida 121, line 12.Google Scholar