SUMMARY

19th Century Greek Orthodox Churches in the Townships of Didymoteicho and Soufli,
Eastern Thrace

I.
The five churches of two neighboring towns in eastern Thrace under study date from the middle of the 19th century and were built during
a twenty-year period between 1834 and

l854.They

are

a. b. c. d. e.

The Church of Saint Athanasius of Didymoteicho, 1834. The Church of Saint Athanasius of Soufli, 1840-1843. The Church of the Virgin Mary of Didymoteicho, 1843. The Church of Christ the Savior of Didymoteicho, 1848. The Church of Saint George of Soufli, 1854.

with a squared "lJ"shaped narthex which is wider than the width of the building itself. According to N. Moutsopoulos this feature can be traced to Constan-

All five churches

are triple-naved basilicas,

tinople. The Diakonikon and the Prothesis niches inside the sanctuaries have led G. Velenis to speculate that three Saints were venerated

in these churches.
Notable differences among the churches are:

1. The Church of Christ the Savior, in Didymoteicho,

ne. and is vaulted. The rest have wooden roofs.

is

built of sto-

2. The masonry of the Church of Saint George of Soufli uses dressed

19r

rectangular stones, whereas the walls of the other churches are built with random ruble except for the apse. This same church is the largest of the group, exhibiting a higher center nave, and boasting of tlvo superimposed "gynaikonites," lbalconies reserved for women] also. Except for the Church of Christ the Savior, the interior construction method shared by all the churches is the mortared-over wooden lattice ["bagdati"], used for the columns as well as for the shaping of the arches. The columns of all churches initially rested on a low, 1.50 m. wooden partition placed between the standing pews along the northern and southern colonnades. The pews used to be arranged back-to-back . Since the completion of the lower sections of the columns, the old pews have been removed.

The interior decoration is primarily stucco. \7ith the exception

of

the stone capitals in the Church of Christ the Savior of Didymoteicho,

all the other churches display gilded stucco decorations ranging from
the simplest (the Church of Saint George of Soufli) to the most complex (Saints Athanasius of Didymoteicho and of Soufli; the Church

of

the Virgin Mary of Didymoteicho). The front and underside of arches

beween the columns, and also the walls, (e.g., Saint George of Soufli)

with intricate gilded stucco garlands and other motifs. It is a style that can be found in other churches of the same period, for
are covered

example St. Menas ofThessaloniki.

il.
The carved wood decoration in these churches (the iconostases; pulpits; altar table canopies

-wherever employ a unified repertory of complex themes and symbols that can be traced to late rococo. Two of the sanctuary gates of carved wood
carry the signature of the same craftsman only twenry six years apart.

extant-

and bishop's thrones)

On the sanctuary gates of Saint Athanasius of Didymoteicho -they are sdll kept in the balcony of the church- we can read "Stamatis Nikolaou fson of Nikolaos?] a Madiatinos? 1835." On the altar gates of the Church of Saint George of Soufli, which are sdll in their initial position, we can make out "The hand [ofl Stamatis taliadouros [a carver ?], a Madytinos ffrom Madytos] a Madltinos

yr 1861." As for the

iconostasis of the Church of Saint Athanasius of Soufli, although the carver remained faithful to the same motifs, these appear rather degra-

ded because the technical skill is radically difitrrent from the other

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rbur and the overall effect is poorer in qualiry than the wood carvings of the other churches. The carvings of the chr,rch of saint Athanasius

of soufli were made, according to the church records, by stratis Keledouros-stamatiadis, from Kessani, and can be dated to the beginnine of the 20th Century (1908-1913). The carved decoration of the church of the monastery of Kornofolia according to the inscription above the main
enuance to the church, by Polykarpos of Didymoteicho in lg57_ belongs to the same group as that of the four churches mentioned above. Both in terms of technique and in terms of the motifs, i.e., basket weave, angels holding up crowns, miniature columns with

-founded,

spiralling ribbons around them but no floral design in-between,

are

similar to the iconostasis decorations of the other four churches. (The older lower panels of the iconostasis have been replaced by new ones

on them). This kind of iconostasis decoration must have been rather widespread at the time since it appears on rwo carved oratories [Proskynetaria] in the church of Saint Menas of
crosses

wirh painted

Thessaloniki.

The canopies hanging above the altar table are a special feature of rhe carved decoration still preserved in the church of the virgin Mary

of Didymoteicho, and in the Church of Saint George of Soufli. The hanging loops are still in place in the church of Saint Athanasius of Didymoteicho, while the canopy in the church of saint Athanasius of soufli has been replaced by a simple wooden consrruction. AIso in place, and in use to this day, are the bishops' thrones set inside niches underneath the altar arches of the rwo Soufli churches. The dearth of publications on 19th century iconosrases makes
comparative study difficult, (determining their kinship in terms of theme and construction techniques, or their origins and occurence in
Greece and throughout the Balkans). As far as the woodcarver Sramatis is concerned there is no particular mention of him in the registers of the Didymoteicho Metropolitan seat. And even if there were works of his in his native Madytos (present-dayTirrkey), access is

knowledge of him is limited to the insrances mentioned above. one thing is certain: there are no similarities with the woodcarving ensembles found in Mt. Athos, the provinces of Thessaly, Epirus, or the Dodecanese. As mentioned earlier, there is a certain

impossible.

our

relationship to the oratory of saint Menas of rhessaloniki, and to wooden decorations found in Serbia.

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Open fretwork in the carvings of the churches of Didymoteicho and Soufli occur mosdy in the higher friezes of the iconostases, the pediments, and the domes of the bishops' thrones and the canopies. Relief work against a solid background is employed
calendar. Apart from angels, no other figures appear

in the

lower

register of the icons, illustating the 12 chief feasts of the Orthodox

in the carvings. The motifs are primarily floral with occasional birds in contorted poses. On the other hand, elaborate wicker baskets and horns-ofplenry abound, with a noticeable tendency towards a symmetrical and harmonious unfolding of the program. These decorative elements in combination with the shapes of the bases, the miniature columns, and the frequent corinthian capitals of the iconostases mid-sections indicate the influence of western European 18th century decorative arts

and ofthe neo-classical revival.

The painted panels below the main iconostasis icons in the Church of Saint Athanasius of Didymoteicho portray architectural subjects that are very similar to the iconostasis of the Church of the Reception of the Virgint at the Temple in Thessaloniki, and to the Church of the Virgin in the monastery of Sisani. The motif of painted drapery partitions, itself of 18th Century western European classicizing origins, appears both in churches and in homes of this period from Siatista to Molyvos, from Grevena to Ambelakia, from Mount Athos, and from the villages in the Zagori ranges to Bulgaria.

III.
The painted decoration of the churches is basically limited to the oratories and to the four large icons, two on each side of the Gate Beautiful, of the iconostasis. Apart from these four, the smaller icons on the upper registers of the iconostasis, the medallions with the aposdes between the arches, and the Pantocrator on the ceiling are of
no particular interest.

The icons of the churches in Didymoteicho are worth studying both as paintings and as records of sociological importance. Two wellknown painters, Nikolaos of Adrianople and Panagiotes of Aino were the ones who received these important commissions, not local artists. In spite of M. Hadzidakis's claim that icon painters are scarce in
the last quarter of the 1 Bth Century in Adrianople, Konstantinos is attested

in 1786 and,

according to professor B. Katsaros, so is Nedelkos

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who decorated the official guest house of the monastery of John the Baptist fProdromou: of the Forerunner] in Serres. Both men are from Adrianople. Nikolaos, the painter of refinement and high esthetic
standards, is a member of a workshop rhar became active around the

middle of the 19th Century. Nikolaos's renown reaches well beyond the borders of present day Greek Thrace into southern Bulgaria. P
Toteva suggests that he could well be the most represenrarive painter

for that area and for that time period. As far

as

the formal conventions

of his kind of art are concerned, they appear to be shared by many artists of the time, including the painter Alexandros who signs the icon of Saint Menas.
Nikolaos works in the churches of Didymoteicho between 1827

to 1827: it is ofJohn the Baptist, in the Church of Christ the Savior. His next, the Elevation of the Cross, in the Church of Saint Athanasius, dates from 1828. Folowing these is the 1838 set of the six main icons on the iconostasis of the
Church of Saint Athanasius, and the 1844 Church of the Virgin
as

and 7845. His earliest icon is datable

set

on the iconostasis of the

the icon of Saint Joseph on the orarory of the same church. In my opinion even the icon of Saint John in the
as

well

Church of Saint Athanasius of Soufli may be by Nikolaos, or by some other artist of the same school, considering the similarities with the icons of the Church of the Vrgin. Chief among Nikolaos's rrairs are the grave and noble features of the figures he paints, as well as his adherence to the traditional style which is, not infrequently, embellished by western European elements, as in the case of the picture
the Virgin, or that of the Holy

of

tiniry.

The time difference between Nikolaos's early pieces and the late
ones allows us to observe the development of his craft. \7e norice that, by degrees, the pictorial values become more linear, decoration begins

to dominate, his colors are brighter, and their juxtaposition sharper. This is a fairly represenrative painter whose art is rypical of the tendencies in the icon-painting of urban centers of Eastern Thrace and one who is able to adopt western European motifs without watering down the hieratic and doctrinal qualities of his traditional compositions.

with a picture of the Archangel Michael (dated to 1854; in the Church of Christ the Savior). His technique results in stiffer and more austere-looking figures. His name appears on an orarory of Saint Athanasius (dated to 1864;

Stephanos, also of Adrianople, is credited

195

in the Church of Saint Athanasius of Didymoteicho), and on an icon of the Virgin's Entrance to the Temple in the Metropolitan Church of Adrianople. Still another Adrianopolitan, Moschos, does the wall paintings of the Church of the Dormition of the Petritsonitissa Virgin (dated to 1850; in Philippoupolis). Panagiotes from Aino, the painter of the iconostasis of the Church of Christ the Savior, at times states he is "from Aghiasma."
He is a scholar whose signature is accompanied by metrical compositions. He is open to more \Testern European effects than Nikolaos,
and it is possible that he was also influenced by Russian icons. Other icon painters in the Church of Christ the Savior, known by

with no indication of their place of origin, are the monk Agapios (with a heavily stylized picture of Saint John the
name only but

Baptist, 1847); Eustratios (with a highly westernized Birth of Christ, tB55); and Charaiambos (with a pronounced folk-art rendition of
Saint George, 1848). Adrianople, second only to Constantinople in beaury in the traveler's Eblia Celebi's words, an important city of the Ottoman empire, served also as the second residence of the Sultans. A city famous for its

public buildings (the mosque of Selim

II

was

built in 1754), Adria-

nople was also the lively hub to a Greek population, counting no fewer

than 25 Greek Orthodox churches. The high quality of architecture and the other arts in Didymoteicho may be attributed to the fact that

it

link between Adrianople and Constantinople. The town of Ainos, where Panagiotes, the second Didymoteicho painter, comes from, is famous already since the end of the 1Sth Century for its shipping. The Ainos ship owners commissioned the building of churches and other public utilities. The humanities flourished also. As Anthimos Roussas recounts, the town of Ainos boasted 17 Greek Orthodox churches and two well-known monasteries, its Greek schools also achieving great distinction. The rather modest painter Zacharias Chrestou is mentioned about the middle of the 19th Century (1840) who hails from the town of Samokovo, of the wider area of Ainos, known for its school of icon painters whose alumni had
served as a

been apprentices on Mount Athos.

In the Soufli

churches the signed icons are

few If surmises

are

confirmed, then these should be examples, primarily, of Panagiotes of Ainos's idiom or some other unknown painter, and possibly one icon

by Nikolaos of Adrianople. One signed icon of the Virgin in the 196

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Church of Saint George is certainly attributable to the monk Dionysios of Constantinople, and so is his Christ, beside the numerous main

iconostasis pictures, all of which show western European traits that

have been adapted to the strict rules of the eastern tradition. Some

of

these traits occur in engravings originating on Mount Athos. The que-

stion arises, naturally, whether Dionysios brought his art with him from his native Constantinople or from Mount Athos where it is
possible he lived as a monk. Similar conditions obtain

the painter-priest Paschales,

in the case of whose icons are also to be found in the

Church of Saint George.

Around 1900, Papaelias of Soufli painted two icon En-the trance of the Virgin to the Temple and a Saint George- for the Church of the Virgin in Didymoteicho. Papaelias's work has all the characteristcs of folk arr. It bears repeating that both the Didymoteicho and the Soufli churches exhibit the kind of art that is rypical of the middle of the 19th Century with some elements thar can be traced to western European techniques, i.e., the exclusive use of the oil medium. The folk tendencies in the art works occur less frequently here than in the rest of Greece (i.e., the painters from Chioniades, Koulakia, and Galatista). \Torkshops

in Epirus, \(/estern and Central Macedonia, and

of

Thessaly employ western European pictorial elements yet manage to

maintain a strong folk quality about them. The art of the Churches

Thrace, on the other, hand aspire to represent radiant and dignified figures of high esthedc pretensions, the result, perhaps, of their closeness to large

cultural centers. But here too, the repeating oftraditio-

nal forms has caused, as in the rest of Christianiry the loss of the benefits of individual creativity in icon painting and has often ended
up as mere decoration.

A number of iconographic rypes (e.g., the icon of John the Baptist) seem to have features originating in the Cretan school of
painting. Constant use, however, has eroded these features. Some
features, on the other hand, appear like those described or, rather, prescribed by Dionysios of Fourna (e.g., the Three Hierarchs fBasil the Great, John the Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazianzus], Saint Athanasius, Saint Spyridon, Saint Nicholas, and the prophet Elijah).

The images of the Virgin, of Christ, the Archangel Michael, and of the Holy Tiinity show imitations of printed icons that were widely circulating among Greek populations of the time, and whose signi-

ficance in the shaping of icon painting cannot be underestimated.

Croup pictures and other complex compositions are rare. Most icons were donated to the churches by guilds invoking their patron
saint. This explains the representation of isolated saints whose icons
reappear in all the churches. In addition to the usual repertory, though,

we notice saints who are specifically associated with the occuparions

of

the countryside. Saint Modestos, protector of cattle raisers, is found in

both Soufli churches. Saint Tiyphon, protector of the fields, is in the Church of Christ the Savior of Didymoteicho. Saint Joseph, the
protector of constructors, appears in the Church of the Dormition
the

of

Vrgin of Didymoteicho, and in the churches of Soufli,

a fact that

illustrates the power of the only guild that is mentioned by name in the

inscribed icons of Soufli.

Specific pieces

of information

are lacking as

to the painters

themselves, their apprenticeships, their general output and their travels, all of which would have enabled more accurate evaluations of the

icons under investigation. Still, we may say that it is a body of work from the middle of the 19th Century and from the area of Adrianople and Constantinople which, together with the areas of Didymoteicho
and Soufli, until 1922 (the year of Greece's defeat in Asia Minor) were
a single, culturally unified territory.

IV During the entire period of the Tirrkish occupation, in both

the urban and the rural contexts, the churches were centers ofnational

cultural activity. This can be easily inferred from the icons donated to the churches by the various trade guilds. Following the emergence of the Greek state (post-l821), about two thirds of Balkan
as

well

as

still under Tirrkish domination. These Greeks, encouraged in part by the example of the newly independent state, and in part by the passing of Ottoman legislature regarding the autonomy of their regions (the Hati Serif, 1839, and the Hati Humay'un Acts of 1856), took increased economic and cultural initiatives. Manufacturers and home businesses were the first to assert themselves; farmers
Greeks were and commodities producers followed. The organization of trade guilds

in Thrace, and more particularly in cities such as Constantinople, Adrianople, Philippoupolis, Ainos, and Selybria, proved to be the
richest in all of European Tirrkey.
Thade guilds, the Orthodox Church, and the local communities

were institutions that the occupying Tirrks looked upon favorably because they facilitated exchanges

with all their other subjects. Tlade

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SuLil& however, played an important role in the fashioning of urban ffiifre and regional self-determination of Greeks everywhere. Together

,aa

miffi rhe Orthodox clergy and the community elders the guilds conmributed gready in the establishing, the maintainance and repair of religious and educational foundations in Thrace, not to mention their *"-bers' participation in the straggle for independence. The founding of a guild was governed by charters that were ,rrpproved by the general assembly of its members and subsquently r,pprorrd by church authorities. Guilds were run hierarchically order and strict distinction was made between assistants, apprentices, aspiri'rg crafismen and, finally, at the top of the pyramid, rhe master crafrsman himself. It was the chief artisans who represented the guilds hefore the Turkish authorities. The master craftsmen were often elecd communiry elders and together with other elected supervisors saw ro the functioning and management of schools and their finances, also to rhe hiring of teachers, and to the founding of other community
instirutions.

Splendid annual celebrations on the day of their patron Saint aimed at promoting the prestige of their members who also chose that
day to announce large donations thar, in turn, advanced a feeling

of

nadonal solidarity. For the preservation of trade secrets, and in order

to communicate without fear of being overheard, guilds elaborated

jargons under such names as Kalantzidika ftin welders], Koudaritika,

Dortika, etc.
Tiade guilds contributed also to the enrichment of such folk arts
as

architecture, wood carving, painting, gold and silver smithing. This

they did by their training, and by executing orders of excellenr

ll'orkmanship.

The power that guilds wielded was considerable. formed one of the earliest guilds in Constantinople.Other

Gardeners trades fol-

lowed suit, and soon there were about 150 Greek guilds in the ciry, the

most important among them being the furriers which was incorporated by the middle of the 16th Century. By the mid-1Bth Century, Adrianople had32 guilds, chief among them being the furriers, tailors,
lumber merchants, and millers.

Didymoteicho trade guilds were called by the Arabic names

(designating groups of people of the same social class and occupation)

or "roufet". According to D. Manakas, the Didymoteicho guilds, through acts of chariry and benevolence, rhey contributed
199

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immensely to the development of the city financially, culturally, intellectually, and patriotically.

The archives of one Didymoteicho guild [sandal makers] alone provides invaluable information cncerning its members as well as its assets and activities from 1831 through 1957.E. g.,"January 8, 1831, the sacred guilds of sandal- and shoe-makers are presenting by name their properry of all kinds, extant to this day, so that our Most Merciful God may keep them safely in perpetuity and so that they may grow and multiply, through the intercessions of our Holy Saint Spyridon, Amen." The guilds list their donations to national causes in 1851, and to schools and other charitable causes in 1856. One is moved to read proceedings during times of war. "The I9l4 Breaking of Bread took place in the home of Nikolaos Vasileiou of Saint Spyridon, the chief artisans and the apprentices being drafted in the Turkish Ar-y, therefore only their narnes were mentioned. During the l9l5 Breaking of Bread, only 8 craftsmen were in attendance; the others were
away."

From 1838 onwards Didymoteicho icon inscriptions testify to the

existence

of numerous other guilds as well: tailors, cloth merchants,

goldsmiths, grocers, furriers, gardeners, clay

oil

merchants, coopers, carpenters and

stonemasons, hawkers, house painters, bakers, farmers, shepherds,

tile

makers, stovepipe menders, tavern keepers,

butchers, watchmen etc. \Thenever the painting was expensive, guilds

joined in footing the bill. In the Church of Saint Athanasius, the icons ofthe Pantocrator and ofJohn the Baptist (1838) record the tailors and
the shoe-makers; the icon of the Three Hierarchs in the Church of the

Vrgin

(1,844) mentions the grocers and the bakers.

The inscribed icons in the Soufli churches are precious few The
icon of Jacob, David, and Joseph (1848) in the Church of Saint Athanasius mentions carpenters and stonemasons. Farmers are mentioned

on the icon of Saint Modestos (1864) in the same church. 'Water millers are mentioned on the icon of Saint Nicholas (1862) in the
Church of Saint George. Soufli flourishes financially in the I879's, and

it

is only during

this period that

it

metamorphoses from a chief rural center

to

an

urban one.'When its churches acquired the inscribed icons, Soufli had

not reached the social coherence and organization of Didymoteicho. As a general rule, guilds tended to offer icons of their patron

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to the churches. Here, however, are some exceptions. Cloth merchants are mentioned in all three Didymoteciho churches on the
Saints icon of the Holy

tinity.

Butchers and meat sellers are menrioned on

t ; :
.f

the icon of the Archangel Michael in the churches of Christ the Savior

and of the Holy Virgin. Grocers are mentioned on the icon of the
Three Hierarchs in the churches of Saint Athanasius and of the Holy

Virgin in Didymoteicho. Gardeners are on the icon of Saint Tiyphon in the Church of Christ the Savior. \7hile John the Baptist is the patron Saint of furriers, they install an icon showing the Prophet Elijah to the Church of Saint Athanasius in Didymoteicho. Farmers donate the icon of the Entrance of the Virgin to the Temple in the Church of the Holy Virgin, and the icon of Saint Modestos to the Church of Saint Athanasius of Soufli. Hawkers appear on the icon of Saint Nicholas in the Church of Saint Athanasius of Didymoteicho, and so do the water-millers in the Church of Saint George in Soufli. The history of these churches and their icons outline esrheric tendencies and styles favored at various times for a wide variety of reasons. They also hint at the life-styles, as well as the economic and social structures of the communities surrounding them. The combined factors of reforms coming from the High Porte and from European interventionism in the area contributed to the economic advancement of the Greek populations iq Turkish occupied Thrace. The new conditions resulted in the cultural and educational development with expanding activities- of the Greek communities -coupled under Tirrkish rule, in the shadow of the local church, clearly, but ultimaltely under the aegis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
-S7'hen

the broader rural Christian populace of the rest of Greece

suffered persistent oppression, persecution, and onerous taxation under the Turkish dynasts, the urban centers of Thrace, thanks to a conjuction of favorable circumstances, did relatively well. It was precisely these circumstances that allowed the building and decorating

of

the churches of Didymoteicho and Soufli this study has been about.

tanslated from the Greek

by Stavros Deligiorgis

70r