A Monastic Foundation in Ninth-Century Northern Greece: The Case of Peristerai. Architecture and Patronage in a Rural Context

Relying upon a case study, the Monastery of St. Andrew in Peristerai near Thessalonica (founded AD 870/871), this paper aims to present the formation and development of a regional monastic institution in ninth-century Northern Greece. St. Andrew turns out to be of interest, since its formative period dates back earlier than the golden age of the Mount Athos monasteries, i.e. the second half of the tenth century. Peristerai lays very close to the Holy Mountain: it therefore will become a competitor of its monastic communities as far as the acquisition of extensive land plots is concerned. This state of affairs will not be a long-lasting one. Quite soon, the lack of spiritual leadership or – more likely – economic mismanagement led Peristerai to undergo to a sort of protectorate of the Great Lavra of Athos. Since no countermeasures were put in effect to prevent the decadence, St. Andrew was soon reduced to a filiation of Great Lavra, being deprived of any autonomy. Of the former monastery complex at Peristerai the sole katholikon (the monastic church) survives to date. Built on a quatrefoil plan, it shows a central square naos and four, triconch-shaped adjacent bays. The apse is flanked by two parabemata or parekklesia, serving as autonomous chapels. Such a peculiar plan, being of late antique origin, finds its closest prototypes in small middle Byzantine monastic churches throughout the Helladic territory, both in the mainland and in the islands. It may have played the role in the introduction of lateral conches (chorostasia) in the layout of the most part of the monastery churches of Athos as well as in some church buildings of northern Greece, even in the post-Byzantine and modern times.