St. Spyridon Cathedral is an Orthodox church on Corfu island, located in the center of the city of Corfu. Named in honor of St. Spyridon Trimifuntsky, who is considered the patron saint of the island, and is the location of his relics.
Cathedral
Originally, the cathedral was located not in its present location, but in the Sarocco area, but due to the construction of the city walls it had to be moved. The present building of the cathedral was built in 1590. The cathedral was built in the style of the Ionian Islands and is not like other churches in Greece.
The cathedral, like all churches located on the Ionian Islands, is different from the Greek churches. The churches of the Ionian Islands were subject to the influence of the Italian architecture of the 17th century, because of this they are small and low, with impressive belfries. The bell tower of the Cathedral resembles the bell tower of the Church of St. George in Venice, which was built at about the same time.
Even more pronounced differences from the Greek churches in the interior. The main elements here are the "sky", that is, the ceiling of the church, which is either completely simple, or has caissons, as well as a different wooden or marble iconostasis, almost reaching the "sky" in its central part.
The icon painters of the Ionian school were strongly influenced by the Renaissance masters. The ceiling of the Cathedral of Saint Spyridon was painted first in 1727 by Piotis Doxaras, who studied in Rome and Venice, and was an ardent admirer of Tintoretto, Titian and Veronese. He became the founder of the Ionic school of painting, which became widespread throughout the Ionian Islands. The original paintings of Doxaras died because of dampness and in the middle of the XIX century were replaced by copies of the work of N. Aspiotis.
Story
In Corfu, the relics of St. Spyridon were in 1489. It is not known exactly when the saint was so closely associated with the fate of the island that he became the patron saint of Corfu. In any case, the legend that the holy island was saved from starvation dates back to 1553.
The ancient church of St. Spyridon was considered the richest in the East; not only Orthodox Christians, but also Catholics donated to the church. Numerous contributions were made by the Russian imperial house, in particular, Empress Catherine II and Emperor Paul I. In the temple, visitors are amazed by huge gold and silver chandeliers, a marble iconostasis, an unusual type of icon in the golden frames on the vault. Throughout the cathedral and above the shrine with the relics of St. Spyridon, a large number of metal figures hang on chains: ships, cars, parts of the body - marks of gratitude of the parishioners and pilgrims who received help from the saint.
In 1801, after the liberation of the island from Napoleon's troops by the holy admiral Theodore Ushakov, the church of St. Spyridon in Corfu was taken under the special patronage of Russia, as a sign of which the imperial coat of arms was installed above its western gate (by 1807 this patronage retained only nominal character, since under the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit, signed by Alexander I and Napoleon, the Ionian Islands were ceded to France).
During the Second World War, an aerial bomb dropped from an airplane on the Church of St. Spyridon exploded in the air, without causing any harm to the building.
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