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Modern Description: The last, and most beautiful Early Christian mosaics in this part of the island are adjacent to the church of Aghia Barbara, one kilometre to the northwest – best reached by retracing steps and taking the road for the airport at the western end of Maltezana. (Almost at the entrance to the airport, follow the track which bears right. The church is visible from here – a small cluster of white buildings on the hillside to the southeast, standing on its own, to the left of a windmill. Continue straight when, after c. 700m, the track turns sharp left. This branch ends after a further 50m; from here, skirt around the hill through the fields to the church.) The modern chapel of Aghia Barbara occupies a small portion of the large floor-space of the 5th century basilica, whose fine mosaics extend to all sides of it, as well as inside the chapel itself where they have been thickly covered with whitewash. The succession of marble column-bases which divided the nave from the south aisle survives, and the monolithic columns which they supported lie nearby – some in white marble, most in Rhodian grey marble. The threshold of the west door is well preserved, with slots for the door-posts and pivot-holes for the doors. The broad narthex is floored with some of the best-preserved mosaics of the complex, once again featuring vine and chalice designs. A number of spolia have been incorporated in the later buildings: a fine, Ionic capital immured upside down above the door of the modern chapel, and a spiral-fluted column in the south wall. The Early Christian building possibly rose over a former pagan shrine, which appears to have been linked to a spring at the same site.
Trismegistos Geo: 38126

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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