The Holy Apostles

By the west walls of the city of Thessalonike, near the Letaia Gate, stands the church of the Holy Apostles. It was originally the katholikon of a monastery and was dedicated to the Virgin, as is indicated by the special place given in the painted decoration to themes related to the Mother of God. The katholikon was founded by the Patriarch Niphon between 1310 and 1314. Three inscriptions refer to his contribution to the construction of the church and to its decoration with mosaics. After his deposition, the work was continued by his pupil, Paul, who was also the abbot of the monastery. It is to him we owe the completion of the mural decoration in the narthex and the ambulatory, which are dated to around 1320. In the founder's representation over the entrance to the naos, the abbot is depicted kneeling before the enthroned Virgin and Child.

The building is a typical example of a complex cross-in-square church, surrounded by an ambulatory. The exceedingly rich brickwork patterns, the blind niches and arcades decorating the facades are characteristic of the Late Byzantine monuments of the city. The mosaics in the naos compose a typical iconographic programme: on the dome are depicted the Pantokrator and prophets, on the pendentives the four Evangelists, while the vaults are adorned with scenes from the Dodekaorton. The painted decoration is mainly centred on the Virgin, who is the personage particularly venerated in the church: in the narthex and the peristyle are depicted a series of scenes from the Life of the Virgin, as well as Old Testament themes prefiguring her, according to theological interpretation.

The north chapel was dedicated to St John the Baptist and was decorated with scenes from his life. Grace and harmony characterise the mosaics and frescoes, and the composition and figures are rendered in accordance with classical concepts. The mosaic decoration of the church, one of the last works of a form of art that flourished particularly in Byzantium, is stylistically related to important contemporary works of the Capital, such as the Chora monastery, and constitutes yet another example of the superior quality of the art of the Palaiologan period.