Church of Agios Charalambos

One of the most beautiful and important Byzantine monuments in Messenia is the church that is located at the modern cemetery in Kalamata, on the eastern outskirts of the city.

It is dedicated to Agios Charalambos. It seems that it was the cemetery church of Byzantine Kalamata, which until the 18th century it was used as a metropolitan church. It dates from the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century.

In its initial form it was a two-storey building, that is it included two independent successive buildings, something common to cemetery churches.

It was destroyed in the Post Byzantine period and suffered extended building interventions and alterations, especially during the 2nd Venice Occupation (1685-1715), which have changes its appearance and structure. In the 19th century a large three-aisled basilica was constructed on its western side and the first church took the place of its altar area. The monument took is final, present day form in the middle of the 20th century.

The Byzantine church, which is the altar of the modern church, occupied the floor of the two-storey building and belonged to the type of cross-in-square church. Its dome was supported to two or four columns, but today it has collapsed and the area was roofed with an inclined roof. From this church the eastern and the lower part of the side walls still survive.

The ground floor is somewhat larger, almost square, partly under the ground. It was housed with a low dome and had large arched openings on all sides, something that makes it difficult to ascertain its use. The church’s masonry is made of carved stones and possesses rich ceramic decoration, dentil courses, crosses and ceramic relief slabs.

The church celebrates in the 10th of February.