International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Galina Fingarova
Vienna, Austria; 
[e-mail]
The Church of St. Mary in Apollonia as a Milestone between East and West
The Church of Saint Mary is one of the most important medieval structures in present-day 
Albania. It belongs to a monastery that was erected on the edge of the ancient city of Apollonia.
The church was built on a cross-in-square plan with an apse at the east and a narthex and porch 
at the west. The most characteristic feature of the church is its building material, which consists 
exclusively of spolia from the ancient city nearby. Another important feature is the architectural 
sculpture, which shows characteristics similar to Romanesque sculpture in Apulia.
Supplemented by a critical reassessment of older archaeological reports and descriptions 
of the building and a thorough evaluation of the existing structure as well as a comparison with 
other buildings, this paper discusses the history of the erection of the church and explains many of 
the building’s singular construction features in the context of the particular political, cultural and 
geographic situation in the region during the Byzantine Period.

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354
Katerina Kontopanagou
University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece; 
[e-mail]
The Christian Monuments of Epirus in the 17
th
and 18
th
C.: 
Creating the Social and Economic Profile
The artistic activity in the Region of Epirus during the last two centuries of the post byzantine 
period was significant. The number of the regional and provincial monuments grows impressively 
after the second half of the 17
th
century and especially during the last decades of the 18
th
century. 
The increasing of the monuments after the first decade of 17
th
century is impressive. The multiple 
influences and the artistic trends at the mural paintings of these two centuries reflect the social and 
economic activity context.
The study and insight of the period’s mural art, offers multi level recognition findings, of the 
society itself. Remarkable data are being collected regarding the artistic activity, the migration and 
the education of the painters, the significant role and the nature of the donors, as well as the networks 
and the artistic influence between Epirus and the rest of the Balkans and the West.