Church of Evengelistria

At the Kato Poli in Mystras, at the road that leads from the Metropolis to the Monastery of Vrontochios, is the small, elegant church of Evengelistria.

Its construction could be placed in the beginning of the 15th century, based on its architectural affinity with the churches of Panagia Perivleptos and Agia Sophia, its wall paintings and its sculpted decorations. Around it there are tombs and ossuaries, which indicate that it was used as a cemetery church. During the Turkish Occupation it was not converted into a mosque and remained in the hands of Christians. Architecturally the church is a simple two-columned, cross-in-square with a narthex in the west. On the southern side of the narthex a portico is shaped from where a stair leads up to the floor. At the east of the portico there is a small, four-sided chapel, which was possibly the base of a bell tower. South of the portico there was possibly another portico, since a tympanum of a large arch survives with rich ceramic decoration. West of the narthex there is a vaulted room, possibly an ossuary of a later period. On the east the arches are built according to the common Greek cloisonné system of masonry, like the arms of the cross and the tympanum of the dome.

The church has an especially rich sculpted decoration at its interior, a representative example of the art of Mystras, with particular interest, since some sculptures have western decorative elements and some are closer to Byzantine tradition. From the initial marble screen, which has been replaced with a built one, only the architrave and the doorframe of the Holy Gate survive. From the wall paintings, which date from the 15th century, very few traces survive, at the dome and the bema.