User:LIT abm/Church of Panagia Faneromeni (Panagia of strangers)

Coordinates: 39.62444°N, 19.92278°W The Holy Church of Panagia Faneromeni or as the locals call it, Panagia of Strangers, is located in the heart of the old town of Corfu in Agios Spyridonos Square.This church was built by the priest Nicodemus, during the period of Turkish rule, for the churching of refugees from Epirus who ended up in Corfu.

History
The Hepirotical influence through its turbulent history has always found refuge in Corfu. During the years of Ottoman rule this phenomenon was more frequent. From the late 16th and early 17th century, however, it took on great enormity. The failure of the various revolutionary movements (notably Dionysius' in 1611) and the violent Islamisations (1635) forced a large number of people who lived in Epirus to take refuge in hospitable Corfu. The assimilation of the numerous Epirotes was not possible. With great national and religious fanaticism they rallied and felt the need to have their own religious space. The initiative in this need was taken by Hieromonk Nicodemus Koltzas with the help of the subscriptions of the Ioannites, Dervinites, Paramythians and Stereots, as evidenced by his will, the archives of the Church, the surviving Historical Archive of Corfu and is written on the inscription at the central entrance of the Church. The unassimilated Epirus were "foreigners" to the locals, which is why the church they founded and used is called, to this day, Panagia of the Strangers and is located in the centre of the Old Town in the square of Heroes of the Cypriot Struggle and between Dinos Theotoki (Piazza) and Captain Aris Kasfiki streets. It is also less than 100 meters from the Holy Church of the Patron Saint of the island, Agios Spyridon. The plot of land of the Church was donated by N. Vervitsiotis, of Epirus origin, as part of the inheritance of his daughter Theodorela Vervitsiotis to hieromonk Nicodemus Kolitzas, with the condition that a Church be built in which the names of her parents and sons would always be commemorated. The church was built in 1689 and the following year it began to function. The church underwent its first renovation-extension between 1727 and 1732. The exterior of the church was finally formed with the towering bell tower in 1752.

Church's architecture
The Church of Virgin Mary of the Strangers is of the three-aisled basilica type. Its internal dimensions are not completely symmetrical, the long axis of the church is 16.16 m long and the width varies from 9.80 m in the east to 9.40 m in the west. However, together with the Narthex of the Temple, the rectangular parallelogram is largely restored, since the Narthex shows an opposite decrease from West 1.26 to East 0.90. The overall building can be characterized as a rectangular parallelogram with dimensions of 16.16 m x 10.70 m and a height of 9.39 m. The orientation of the Temple is from East to West. Its masonry is simple and the thickness of the walls of the building is 0.69. The morphology of the roof is an example of the Post-Byzantine Architecture and does not show any peculiarity. The whole building is covered by a wooden tiled roof where from the west and east it forms triangular gables. The sanctuary is separated from the main church by a Temple of 5.45 m. and is the most beautiful and special style of gilded Temple of all the churches of the island according to S. Papageorgiou, who says that it is the oldest Temple of wooden, gilded, rococo style, which was renewed in 1875 in the same style, by invited Italian technicians of Neapolis. The decoration of the wood-carved Temple has the vine as its main element in its representations. There are no frescoes but only portable pictures..

Church's relics
The picture representing the Tree of Jesse is one of the important relics of the temple. In this drawing, prophets are depicted with their respective sayings about the coming of the Messiah. Also another iconography found in the Temple Gates is unique of its kind as it depicts nineteen Fathers of the Church, ten from the East and nine from the West. The sacred vessels of the temple are quite remarkable and masterly. There are silver reliquaries containing small pieces of relics of saints such as St. George of Ioannina, and a relatively large part of the Holy Cross.

Traditions of the church
The church celebrates the Nativity of the Virgin Mary which is on September 8. A special celebration also takes place on July 20 on the feast of Prophet Elijah and honors respectively St. George of Ioannina on January 17. On Holy Saturday at 6 a.m. the custom of Botides takes place, which is a re-enactment of the earthquake that followed the Resurrection.