Greece - Mystras, Mitropolis

The Mitropolis (Cathedral of Agios Dimitrios) is considered being the most important church of Mystras ( www.ipernity.com/doc/294067/49139868 ). The church is part of a complex of buildings enclosed by a high wall. The original church was founded in the late 13th century as a wooden roofed basilica. The cathedral has a mixed architectural style: it combines the groundplan of a Roman basilica with a Greek domed church, which was added in the first half of the 15th century.

The church - the oldest of the surviving churches of Mystras - stands in a courtyard. Its impressive ecclesiastical ornaments and furniture include a marble iconostasis, an intricately carved wooden throne, and a marble slab in the floor featuring a two-headed eagle (the symbol of Byzantium) located on the exact site where Emperor Constantine XI Palaeologos was crowned in 1448 (PiP 5). The church also has some fine frescoes, dating back to late 13th and early 14th centuries.

Next to the cathedral is a small museum, depicting fragments of ancient cloths, buttons, jewellery and other everyday items.