The Church of the Holy Theotokos, or of the Mother of God, is of much later date. The church proper has but a single dome of any importance, though there are several others over the narthex ([Fig. 428]). This dome covers the intersection of two barrel-vaults, is supported simply on four columns, and rises high above its pendentives on a drum pierced by windows ([Fig. 429]). The architecture of this church is very elegant, differing in date, it is probable, but little from that at St. Mark’s at Venice. Others do not differ sufficiently from these types to make it worth while here to describe them. It may, however, be mentioned that in the later Greek churches the domes, or some of them, rose often so high as to become rather elegant towers, arcaded externally. This is the case with several of the churches at Athens.
Fig. 428.—Plan, Church of the Holy Theotokos.
Fig. 429.—Section, Church of the Holy Theotokos.