Summary
Agathoniki Tsilipakou, Vassiliki Kaltapanidou, Konstantinos Tzimpoulas
The Church of the Dormition of the Theotokos stands at the very heart of the little town of Velventos, together with the old high school and the imposing bell-tower, built in 1873. The historic complex formed by these three monuments faces onto a common piazza. An inscription states that the church was built in 1804, on the site of a smaller one. The three-aisled, wooden-roofed basilica has a raised women’s gallery in the narthex and porches, of later date, on the west and south sides. Inside, wooden columns divide the nave into three aisles. The wooden ceiling is decorated with a variety of patterns, motifs and colours. The interior is covered throughout with painted saints, prophets, apostles, martyrs, scenes from the life of Christ, and liturgical and eucharistic subjects drawn from Biblical texts. According to inscriptions, the church was decorated between 1804 and 1812. Iconographically and stylistically the decoration exemplifies the Modern Greek Baroque predominant in Northern and Central Greece at that time. The carved wooden altar screen, which was completed in 1807, is an exceptionally fine piece of work, and quite unlike anything else in the region. It is decorated with floral and animal motifs and scenes from the Bible. The pulpit, throne, iconostasis and ciborium are all of similar craftsmanship. In the framework of the 3rd CSF (Western Macedonia ROP 2000-2006) the 11th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities carried out and supervised a consolidation and conservation programme, which included removing repairs and interventions that had altered the original character of the church, consolidating the masonry, replacing door and window frames, repairing the original floors, and addressing problems of damp. The wall-paintings and decorative woodwork were cleaned, consolidated and repaired. An information panel was, finally, installed outside the building.
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