The Hermitage of Saint Neilos near Giromeri, Thesprotia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18688/Keywords:
Palaeologan painting, 14th–15th centuries, Saint Neilos Erichiotis, Epirus, Thesprotia, Giromeri, HermitageAbstract
The hermitage of Saint Neilos is located on a rocky outcrop opposite the monastery of Giromeri. The existence of a monastery in this area is evidenced by historical sources, as it was founded by Saint Neilos Εrichiotis, a fact that is recorded both in the Saint’s Synaxarium and in his Testament. The hermitage was built inside a cave, now not accessible, as its opening is visible on a vertical cliff, at a height of about 17 m. above ground. This opening is walled up and leads to a narrow cave. Inside the cave, where a large single space is formed, there must have been a two-story structure, which has collapsed in its entirety. The church was probably on the structure’s second floor, as the presence of a niche on that level indicates. This church was probably built soon after Saint Neilos had settled in the area, before 1330.
In the hermitage, very few wall paintings are preserved, one on the outer face of the rock and two inside the cave. These paintings belong to two distinct phases. Of the first layer the image of Pantokrator is visible on the eastern side of the cave ceiling, with an inscription below Him. The mural decoration of the second layer preserves Christ’s figure from the representation of the Virgin Vlachernitissa on the eastern side of the second floor, inside the cave, and a full-body archangel on the outer face of the walled-up opening of the cave.
Christ Pantokrator is depicted in a frame. The dark olive-green shades on his face and hand, the body volume, the color gradations, but also the smooth and well-designed folds, recall corresponding figures in Palaeologan monuments of the first half of the 14th century, mainly in Macedonia. Of the Virgin Vlachernitissa representation in the niche, only Christ is preserved in a shell-shaped roundel. The shell-shaped roundel follows the type of similar roundels in monuments of the 15th century and early post-Byzantine times. In general, the type of the glory that surrounds Christ, his posture, his broad and bright face, combined with his clothing, follows north Greek or Macedonian patterns. The Christ from the representation of Vlachernitissa inside the cave and the archangel on the outer rock surface could be dated to the 15th century, maybe to the first half of that century.
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