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Modern Description: Panagia Gorgoepikoos or Little Metropolis or Agios Eleftherios, at Mitropoleos square next to the Cathedral of Athens. It is a unique structure, pieced together with marble blocks reused from Classical through Middle Byzantine monuments. Bente Kiilerich in a 2005 article pointed out that Cyriacus of Ancona, who described Athens in a 1436 visit, recorded an inscription from near the Agora that is now built into the church, strongly suggesting the church was not a Byzantine or even Frankish structure but was built to replace the main church of the Panagia, the Parthenon on the Acropolis, after it became a mosque following the Ottoman takeover of Athens.
[Judith Binder: Panagia Gorgoepekoos, The Little Metropolis, 12th or 13th c., renamed Hag. Eleutherios in 1862 when King Otho was forced to resign, (Plan 1 gamma — 8, no. 94): Maltezos, G. T. 1960, 56-59 no. 1; Biris, K, 1966, 44-45 no. 51; Byzantine Monuments 1970, pls. 1-11; K. Michel and A. Strunk, “Die mittelbyzantinischen Kirchen Athens: I. Die Kirche der Panagia Gorgoepekoos,” AM 31 (1906) 281-324, figs. 1-30, pls. 20-21; P. Steiner, “Antike Skulpturen an der Panagia Gorgoepekoos zu Athen,” ibid., 325-341, figs. 1-2; [construction in the 13th c. during the Frankish period is more likely]]
Wikidata ID: Q2790568
Trismegistos Geo: 364

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(JBK)

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