Saint Marina at Meseleroi
The single-nave church of St. Marina, whose south side is formed with a large buttress, is located on the east corner of the settlement of Meseleroi. It is dated according to the wall painting decoration, the work of an anonymous but excellent painter, to the first quarter of the 14th century. Its iconographic programme presents a peculiarity in the barrel-vault of the sanctuary. The Birth and the Descent into Hades are depicted in place of the Ascension, themes, however, which are appropriate for the position they hold, since they stress the dogma of the Incarnation of the Word as well as that of the salvation of man. In the main church, on the barrel-vault, only a few, but large, Gospel scenes are depicted. Both scenes in the lower band of the church are extremely rare: on the north wall, the recognition and the witness of the Forerunner to the presence of Christ on earth is in the type which depicts the All-Holy Virgin leading Christ, as a student holding a tablet with the alphabet, towards the teacher Forerunner, and, on the south wall, next to St. Marina, who holds the place of the pilgrimage icon, the All-Holy Virgin, upright, mourns in front of the small Christ.
