On Veikou avenue, opposite the park with the same name, at a specially shaped area with trees and far from the city’s buildings, is the small church of Agios Georgios, known as Omorfokklisia, due to its elegance and charm. It dates from the end of the 12nd century and was the catholicon of an unknown monastery which is not mentioned in the sources.
Omorfokklisia is a characteristic example of a cross-in-square church with an eight-sided dome. The walls are built with large polygonal stones at their base and with the characteristic, for Byzantine churches, cloisonne masonry on the upper part. On the south side of the church a small one-aisled chapel has been added, which dates from the 13th or 14th century, while in the 15th – 16th century they added a narthex to the western side.
The interior of the church was decorated with wall paintings, excellent works of Athenian painters in the end of the 13th century, most of which survive even today. At the dome dominant is the Pantokrator, a painting that Photis Kondoglou truly admired and proved to be the model for all depictions of Pantokrator he painted himself. The lower part of the walls, the arches and the tympana depict the whole body of saints, ascetics, prelates and prophets, in scenes from the Old and the New Testament. At the narthex are depicted, among others, scenes from the life of Virgin Mary and the martyrdom of Agios Georgios. On the church’s walls one can see several carved inscriptions. These are supplications that the faithful have carved. Interesting is the built screen, which was added in 1743, as well as scattered sculptures of the 10th and 11th century, which have been incorporated in the church.
