Church of Panagia Atheniotissa

The Church of Our Lady of Athens or Panagia Atheniotissa (Greek: Παναγία η Αθηνιώτισσα, lit. 'Panagia the Athenian') was a Greek Orthodox basilica adapted from the ruins of the Parthenon sometime in the 6th century. During the Frankish occupation of Athens the church became the Catholic archiepiscopal cathedral of Our Lady by Papal Bull in 1206. It remained under the Latin liturgy until the departure of the last Florentine Duke of Athens in 1458, when it briefly returned to the Orthodox confession. Sometime after the Ottoman occupation in 1460, the Parthenon was converted into a mosque.

History

The end of pagan worship at the Parthenon cannot be dated precisely. The decree of Theodosius II (438) concerning the conversion of pagan temples and the edict of Justinian (529) closing the classical schools of philosophy set the context from which it can be inferred that paganism ceased in the 5th century. The last dedication in the Parthenon by a polytheist is dated to 375, and the last Panathenaic Games were held in 391 or 395. F.W. Deichmann has shown that the conversion to a church must have occurred before 578–582, due to the presence of Christian tombs with datable numismatic evidence on the south side of the Parthenon. The building suffered a devastating fire in the late Roman period such that the original roof was destroyed; this was then repaired in such a way that only the naos was reroofed with the peripteral colonnade left open to the sky. This was the structure that was converted into a church.