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Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-10-21
CONTENTS
[01] Priceless Sasso Ferrato icon in Thessaloniki
[01] Priceless Sasso Ferrato icon in Thessaloniki
A priceless Byzantine-era icon of St. Demetrius, patron saint of
Thessaloniki, will arrive in the northern Greek city on Monday, where
it will remain on display for about a month.
The rare icon is on loan from a museum in the Italian town of Sasso
Ferrato and was requested for celebrations around the October 28
national holiday in Thessaloniki, when Greeks celebrate their
resistance to the Axis powers of WWII. The holiday comes just two days
before the feast day of St. Demetrius, which this year also marks 1,700
years since the saint's martyrdom.
The valuable relic will be officially handed over on Monday afternoon
in the ancient Agora and will be on public display in the Church of St.
Demetrius. A press conference on the icon's arrival was held on Friday
by Thessaloniki Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos and Thessaloniki
Metropolitan Anthimos, attended by the head of the Italian Institute of
Thessaloniki.
The 13th-century icon is a miniature, measuring just 9x6 centimetres,
and portrays the saint in military uniform, bearing a lance and a
shield, against a gold background. It was taken to Italy from
Constantinople before the city was sacked and this is the second time
it will be travelling outside Italy's borders, after it was loaned for
an exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum.
According to experts, the icon has historic as well as artistic value,
being an example of cooperation between Greeks and the Catholic
humanists that helped usher in the Renaissance.
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