Modern Description:
The church is a 5th century three-aisled basilica with a narthex, excavated in 1929. "on the shore of the small gulf north of Cape Punta, on the site of an extended Classical cemetery which was used until the Early Byzantine period. At the junction of Phivis and Metaxas St., the excavator found a large number of Classical graves, four Roman graves, and one which could be dated to the 3rd/4th c. The cemetery extended further SW. On the coast (mod. Asteria Glyphadas), a number of LRom/EByz tombs were erected inside and just outside a rectangular enclosure wall of the Early Helladic period. Thirty-four graves were excavated; many of them contained clay and glass jugs of the 4th to 6th c., and a few bronze coins. It is reasonable to assume that the choice for the location of the basilica was dictated by the existence of the cemetery. The basilica is three-aisled, covered with a wooden roof, as indicated by the thickness of the exterior walls (0.55 m) and the maximum diameter of the columns (0.285 m). Nevertheless, and despite its modest size (15.75x17.50 m), the building shows luxurious architectural elements, such as the columns of the stylobate, 2.65 m high, made of blue and of white marble, and its paving with blue and white marble slabs, which create a decorative pattern. The synthronon of the apse has steps at both ends, an unusual feature which places it at an intermediate stage between an elevated apse and a proper synthronon. The basilica was dated to the turn of the 5th towards the 6th c. by Orlandos. Pallas thinks that it dates relatively late compared to the other Early Christian basilicas of Attica. In this first phase, it was used up to “an unknown era” and was destroyed by an unknown cause, as the excavator states. The basilica had two subsequent construction phases. In the second phase, the colonnades were walled, and only the middle part of the basilica was in use. Two coins, one of the empress Theodora (1054-1055) and one of the Comnenian dynasty, found on the floor of this structure, probably come from the last period of its use. In the third construction phase, a small chapel was erected in the area of the original apse and the eastern part of the main aisle. Christian tent-shaped graves were found south of the basilica, but their ruined condition did not allow a firm dating." (Tzavella 2012, p. 241)
Wikidata ID: Q104378973Trismegistos Geo: 37721
Info: E. Tzavella 2012 
Elissavet Tzavella, URBAN AND RURAL LANDSCAPE IN EARLY AND MIDDLE BYZANTINE ATTICA (4TH – 12TH C. AD), PhD dissertation, Univ. of Birmingham 2012, https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/16292781.pdf
