ATLAS OF THE CHRISTIAN MONUMENTS OF THE AEGEAN - page 131

Thessaloniki.
Thessaloniki.
MACEDONIA
133
while, in the 7th c., after being burnt down, Aghios Demetrios
was reconstructed as a five-aisled basilica with transept and
opulent sculpted and mosaic decoration installed.
Towards the end of the 7th c. the new cathedral of the city, a
domed basilica with ambulatory, dedicated to Aghia Sophia,
was established on the site of an earlier basilica that had been
destroyed by an earthquake. In the early 7th c. all funerary
churches outside the city walls were destroyed by barbarian
raids. The ancient cemeteries were abandoned and the dead
were buried inside the city, while all monasteries were trans-
ferred within the city walls. From that time onward, Thessaloniki
acquired a medieval form due to violation of the ancient urban
fabric, limitation but increasing height of buildings, and the
foundation of many monasteries. The memory of Iconoclasm is
preserved by the aniconic decoration in the barrel vault of the
bema of Aghia Sophia, as well as the aniconic images in the
church excavated by Evangelides at the junction of Egnatia and
Metropolitou Gennadiou Streets. In 885, during the prelacy of
112. Thessaloniki, Hosios David, mosaic (Θεσσαλονίκη, Όσιος Δαβίδ, ψηφιδωτό)
112. Thessaloniki, Hosios David (Θεσσαλονίκη, Όσιος Δαβίδ)
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