The most complete information guide about Athens, Greece
Churches in Athens
Agii Assomati sta Skalia (Saint
Assomati on the Steps)
The church known as Saint Assomati on the Step was a mid-Byzantine
church dedicated to the Archangels. It used to be attached to
the exterior western wall of Hadrian’s Library next to its
entrance, a few meters south of the Tzistarakis Mosque on Monastiraki
square. Today only fragments of the church’s mural paintings
have been preserved on the library’s wall.
The
church’s form is known through its depictions by foreign
travelers of the 18th and 19th century. The church was of the
cross-in-square type with an eight sided dome, built in the 11th
century. The inscriptions on the library’s columns indicate
that the church belonged to the Chalkokondylis family.
The
church was repaired in 1576. At this time the mural paintings,
fragments of which have been preserved, were made. The church
was demolished ca. 1842 in order to carry out archaeological research
to reveal finds from the classical antiquity.