Feres. Vira.
Loutra Feron. Traianoupolis.
THRACE
81
1. Feres, Kosmosoteira (Φέρρες, Κοσμοσώτειρα)
1. Feres, Kosmosoteira, capitals (Φέρρες, Κοσμοσώτειρα, κιονόκρανα)
1.
Feres. Vira.
Sebastokrator Isaac Comnenus, son of Alexius I Comnenus (r.
1081-1118), founded in 1152 at Feres, Evros, the monastery of
Panagia Kosmosoteira, also known as the monastery of Vira.
Soon a small settlement developed around the monastery.
During the civil wars of the 14th c. this was initially a strong
fortress and was converted into a monastery in subsequent
years. It was conquered by Lala Sahin Pasha and Evrenos af-
ter 1371 and the catholicon was converted into a mosque by
Süleyman Pasha, son of Sultan Orhan (1326-1362). From this
complex the catholicon and parts of the fortifications survive.
The catholicon is a cross-in-square church, two-columned and
five-domed type, with narthex. Interventions during the Turkish
domination degraded the dome and the apses’ windows, and
the narthex was demolished. Immediately after the catholicon
was constructed it was decorated with wall-paintings. Inside is
the tomb of the founder, who removed marbles from the tomb
he had provided for himself at the catholicon of the monastery
of Chora in Constantinople. Remnants of the system supplying
water from a spring on a neighbouring hill survive outside the
modern town. On the plain, S of Feres, a Byzantine cemetery
has been excavated.
2.
Loutra Feron. Traianoupolis.
Traianoupolis was founded in the 1st-2nd c. According to Pro-
copius, Emperor Justinian’s (r. 527-565) defence plan included
its fortification. Traianoupolis was the metropolitan see of Rho-
dope from the Early Christian period until the 13th-14th c., when
it was gradually abandoned after its destruction in 1206 by Tsar
John of Bulgaria (r. 1197-1207). In the mid-14th c. the city was
found laid waste by Byzantine emperor John VI Cantacuzenus;
1. Feres, Kosmosoteira, ground plan (Φέρρες, Κοσμοσώτειρα, κάτοψη)
1. Feres, Kosmosoteira,
mural painting (Φέρρες,
Κοσμοσώτειρα, τοιχογραφία)
