Church of Agios Andreas in Peristera

At the centre of the picturesque villages of Peristera, on the southern foothills of Chortiatis, is one of the oldest and most important Byzantine churches of Macedonia, dedicated to Agios Andreas. It was the catholicon of a monastery and is the only building of the complex that still survives today.

Its initial construction must have taken place in the first Christian centuries, as is evident by its architectural plan, and it should function as the catholicon of a monastery until the 9th century when it fell into ruins. It was reconstructed in 870-871 by Osios Efthimios the Young, one of the most important people related to monk life in Mount Athos. The monastery just a few years after its foundation started to be referred in documents as “royal” an soon obtained a metochi at the area of Ierissos. In 964 emperor Nikephoros Phokas granted it together with its real estate to the newly founded Monastery of Great Lavra, and remained its metochi until the 15th century.

Architecturally, the church presents several peculiarities that make it unique. It is a cross-in-square, tetraconch church with five domes, one over each conch and the central one, with six sides, supported internally on four columns. Its masonry is simple and heavy, without decoration, something that indicates the age of its construction. At its interior there parts from the icons of the domes, that took place in 871, during the re-construction of the church by Osios Efthimios, and presents intense influence from the Early Christian tradition. The three domes are decorated with isosceles crosses, while at the central one Christ is depicted and around him, at the tympanum, the apostles. It is noteworthy that the church itself is depicted as a model that Peter and Paul hold between them. At the church there is the tomb of Osios Efthimios.

The church celebrates on the 15th of October Osios Efthimios and on the 30th of November Agios Andreas.