Saved By Lightning

This week I’m featuring another tiny church – this time back in Athens.  It’s located on Philopappos Hill facing the Acropolis, and everything about this church seems full of contradictions … even the spelling of its name.

While the sign outside clearly calls it Ayios Demetrios Loubardiaris, Google searches result in other variations … the most common being Agios Dimitrios Loumbardiaris.

Some sources say its history dates back to the 9th century, others say the 12th.  Some indicate that “loubardiaris” refers to “cannon”, others say “bombardier”.

No matter how you slice it, this is an interesting little structure wrapped in a legend that tells of a miracle.

The miracle dates back to approximately 1658 – or maybe not, depending on the source of the story.

The one thing that is clear in all the stories is that there was an attempt to blow up the church, and the people seeking refuge inside it, using a cannon from the top of the Acropolis.

From the title of this post, you can probably guess what happened.

Lightning struck the gunner, or the Commander, or the gunpowder shed, perhaps all 3 of them … depending on what story you read.  At any rate, he, or them, were killed and the church was saved.

IT WAS A MIRACLE! – or so the legend says – and it was thus named “Church of the Cannon“, or something like that.  If I’m being vague I’m blaming it on the various storytellers.

I guess that’s to be expected after 350ish years and various translations from Greek.  Everyone’s familiar with the game of whispering a phrase from person to person around a room.  It doesn’t take long for the sentence to morph wildly from the original.

Behind the red curtain was a small dark closet-like room with a prayer altar.  

A major restoration of the church occurred in the 1950s that uncovered illustrations going back to the 16th century.

I don’t know how old the doors are, but they were unusual enough to capture my attention before we moved on.

This tiny church and its surrounding courtyard was a quiet, cool oasis after a hot and sweaty climb up the hill.  I’m not surprised it has become a popular place for weddings.  It seems like a good omen to start off your married life on the site of a reported miracle.

This post has been brought to you by Thursday Doors – a weekly photo feature hosted by Norm Frampton at Norm 2.0.

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I would be remiss if I didn’t include a photo of one of the outside walls.  I’m reasonably confident this is a relatively new addition, but I love the texture and detail design.