Greece. Hagios Demetrios, amazing place on the way to Meteora /17 photos/

Hey travelers, how are you? I have you are all safe, waiting with some patience for the world pandemic to be over so we travel and discover our beautiful world!

Some time ago I was traveling with a big group of photographers to Meteora in Greece, a place I am going to tell you about in a separate travelfeed.io story which I am certain you are going to like a lot, I promise you ;) Amazing nature, history, faith and religion blend there and everyone who has had the chance to go there is quite impressed and wants to return at some point!

Today I'm going to tell you a short visual story about another place where history, faith and religion blend in a very interesting way. I rarely write about churches. I have no idea why but usually priests and clerks at any Orthodox churches are very negative towards all the photographers trying to capture a photo for their memories. No one, myself included, doesn't like to be yelled at, right?

The beautiful Church of Saint Demetrius or as Greeks call it, Agios Dimitrios, was a pleasant exception of this unwritten rule, probably because it is also a museum.

The day I visited it was a scenery one, the clouds were very beautiful. But let me walk you through as the inside is impressive, beautiful and  interesting!

Entering the church:

The first church on this location was a small one, build in the early fourth century on top of a Roman bath right after the persecutions of the Christians by the Roman Empire were put to an end. Amazing, isn't it? About a century later it was expanded. Then it suffered from multiple fires and was rebuilt again in sixth century as a five-parts basilica, very close to what it looks today. Saint Demetrios is the patron saint of the city of Thesaloniki in Macedonia, Greece.

Several centuries later, Thessaloniki was occupied by the Turks and became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1430. Few years later the church was converted into a mosque. Many interior details were lost during that period, on top of that there was a huge fire in the beginning of twentieth century. Finally, after many many years of restoration, the basilica was fully reconstructed in 1949.

When I entered it I could really tell and feel the tons of important events that had happened here.

Candles burn for the souls of the living and the dead.

Huge chandeliers hanging from the tall ceiling.

Turning my head I could see a different picture under the next one:

All the interior details are simply stunning:

I got to the underground were are the remains of the Roman bath and the crypt:

The history tells that  St. Demetrius was held prisoner and executed here. A Roman well could be found here as well.

Walking here was really giving me some chills from time to time.

After getting upstairs I needed few moments to sit and rest in silence.

While seated I enjoyed the great architecture.

Just before getting out, I noticed these huge candles, I wonder how many hours do they burn?

Outside again and walking to our gathering point before we get on the bus and ride few more hours to Meteora... So stay tuned for the following story :)

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Copyright: Damian Hadjiyvanov, Light Captured

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