Church of Saint Therapon in Mytilene

The Church of Saint Therapon, Lesvos’ largest, dominates the center of Mytilene and is an impressive blend of Byzantine and Gothic styles with Baroque elements. Its construction began around 1850 on the site of an earlier chapel that served the charitable institution “Xenodocheio,” and was completed in 1935. The architect was the Mytilenian Argyris Adalis, a student of Hansen and Ziller, while the exterior décor was by Nikolaos Kessanlis. The church, a cross-in-square with five domes, stands out for its façade with Ionic and Corinthian columns and its central dome sheathed in zinc. Inside, the wood-carved iconostasis, pulpit and bishop’s throne by Dimitrios Kovalas (1915) are prominent, as are important icons of the Iosaphaioi brotherhood of Mount Athos. A precious relic is the icon of Saint Therapon (1651), while of particular historical value is the marble sarcophagus of Metropolitan Ignatios of Ungro-Wallachia, a fighter in the 1821 Revolution.