Modern Description:
The Frankish Church NE of Chalandri was known only as a name until recently, when it was excavated as part of the Attike Odos works. After its excavation, the monument was transferred 50 m SE of its original location, to a the junction of Attikes St. and Leukon Oreon St. In the 19th c., ruins of it were still visible (KvA Blatt V, ‘KapellenRuine Franco Monastiri’). It is located by the SE bank of the Chalandri stream. Orlandos has suggested that the church pre-dated the Frankish conquest, when it was delivered to or occupied by the French Frères Mineurs. This small single-aisled basilica (11x3,6 m) was probably constructed as a cemetery church, as attested by the built grave (arcosolium) which was built simultaneously, attached to the south wall of the church; two pit graves were opened in the narthex. The only safe indication for the chronology of the church is a hoard of billon deniers and tornesia, dating between 1280 and 1311, which were found under the destruction layer of the southern part of the apse; these point to its erection before 1280. A glazed Green and Brown painted cup (2nd half of the 12th c.), which was found just north of the church, hints to use of this space, and possibly of the church, already in the 12th c., confirming Orlandos’ hypothesis. Noteworthy is the funerary character of this late church, which is located amidst a much older cemetery, of the ancient and Early Byzantine periods. Recent excavations which took place sixty m SE of Francokklesia revealed an extensive agricultural installation with three successive chronological phases, which range from the mid 12th to the 14th c.1236 In the layer of the second phase, a half tetarteron, possibly of Manuel I Comnenus (1143-1180) was found. In this phase, the largest part of the installation was occupied by storage spaces with pithoi, which are dated to the 13th-14th c. by sherds of glazed vessels stuck on one pithos. The chronological range of this phase of use between the later 12th and the 13th/14th c. is certified by fragments of datable glazed vessels which were found in the stratigraphic layers of the phase. During the third phase, slightly later, the space continued to be used as an agricultural installation, whereas a pair of bronze earrings, inlaid with gold, surprises with its high-value craftmanship. (Tzavella 2012, p. 235). [Unsignposted, low wire fence surrounding the site in a small parking lot on the S frontage road of Attiki Odos (2018). Large reused marble blocks in the floor]
Trismegistos Geo: 1784
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
