Aikaterinh Balla Source: C.E.T.I. © Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace

print

The small church of St Catherine, preserved on the hilltop of Kale near the site of the Byzantine palace of Didymoteicho, was probably a funerary chapel and dates from the mid- 14th century AD. It is a single-aisled church with three pairs of buttresses in the interior that support the roof and bears exceptional decoration on the exterior sides. It is related to the Constantinopolitan architecture and the construction techniques of the school of Nice. The excavations carried out in the surrounding graves uncovered a reused funerary stele of the monk Dionysius (1173) recording the names of the orthodox king Manuel and Augusta Maria.