The Metropolitan church of Megali Panagia at Neapolis
The metropolitan church, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos (August 15), rises magnificent in the north corner of the central square of Neapolis. Its erection at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century lasted a long time due to the financial constraints of the period. It had been founded in the year 1889 by bishop Meletios Chlapoutakis, was mostly built by his successor, bishop Titos Zografides, and was completed by bishop Dionysios Maragoudakis who inaugurated it on September 27, 1927. The church belongs to the cross-in-square plan with a zenana and two tower-like belfries on its western side which flank a porch with a tribelon opening. Its lower section is particularly cared for, as for the greater part, it is built out of carved masonry from grey local marble as are the openings in their entirety and the voluminous pillars in its interior. The wood-carved altar screen as well as the iconography in the interior belongs to the period 1962 – 1965 when the church was renovated extensively because of damage. North of the metropolitan church, a small barrel-vaulted church of the All-Holy Virgin ‘Fermalina’ dated to the 19th century, has been built on top of the foundations of an older church.
