Sites & Monuments Church of Kokkini Panagia, Konitsa
The church is located at the site of Servina, northwest of the city of Konitsa. It is a single-room, wooden-roofed church of the 13th – 14th century dedicated to the Life-giving Spring, so-named due to the red color of its masonry, which consists mostly of brick, with a limited use of stones.
Very important for the art of the Byzantine period are the frescoes inside the church (eastern wall, arch), which date from the end of the 14th – beginning of the 15th century, as they present pictorial peculiarities and complex theological symbolisms. In the alcove of the sanctuary, the Virgin Mary holding the Infant is depicted as the Scene of the Martyrdom, a theme full of theological symbolisms, with many references to passages of the Old Testament, but also to patristic texts. In the semi-cylinder of the arch, Melismus, the symbolic representation of the Eucharist, is depicted twice. The double portrayal of the subject is unique in the history of the Byzantine art.
Athina Zogaki