Maria Vidali
Article on Duplicity in Scroope, Issue 25, Cambridge Architecture Journal
Tinos, a Greek island in the north-west of the archipelago known as the Cyclades, situated in the Aegean Sea, is known especially for the strong devotion of its people to the Christian Orthodox religious tradition and for its pilgrimage honouring the Virgin Mary. Tinian piety towards the Divine had established the island as ‘holy land’ ever since antiquity, when the worship of Poseidon and Dionysus first began. After Christianity was introduced to the Cyclades with the Decree of Mediolana (A.D. 313), this manifestation of religious fervour and piety continued with increased vigour.
The seven hundred and fifty chapels on the two hundred square kilometres of the island dotting the landscape and defining the territory of the villages are a true token of the local inhabitants’ strong religiosity. These chapels are in Greek called “exocclesia”, or outlying chapels, both because of their very small architectural form and because of the fact that they are found in the countryside surrounding the village, next to cultivated fields, pathways, on top of hills, inside gorges or hinged on rocks near the sea.
Among the different types of chapels which still exist nowadays, there is one type whose location in the island’s geography, architectural form and iconography reflect different and at times opposed elements. This duplicity has been intentional, considering that outlying chapels were built both for the world of the living and for the world of the deceased, both for the Eucharist and the liturgy. This dual use is also reflected in architectural, historical and archaeological details, including religious symbols vividly present in the chapels. These chapels are called bi-niche outlying chapels and their particular interest as symbols of life and death, makes them worthy of being reviewed more thoroughly.
History
While Tinos’ oldest chapels date back to the Byzantine era (4th to 13th century), most were built during Venetian times (1207-1715) with a considerable number dating to the time of Ottoman rule (1715-1821). Today, nearly half of the outlying chapels reflect the Orthodox religious tradition through their architectural details and decoration and half reflect the Catholic tradition, both of which are equally practiced on the island.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, one of the primary functions of the outlying chapel was that of a tomb. The owner and their family had the right to be buried in the chapel. At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Catholic Church banned the burial of the deceased both in private chapels and in churches, this practice and that particular use of the chapel stopped. However, the use of the chapel as a space in-between life and death continued, since private chapels serve as a place to commemorate the deceased of the family. This is still evident nowadays, as we see the owner visit the chapel once a week to light the candle in the memory of the deceased member of the family. Outlying chapels in their stature and form create a link between the living and the dead, between the divine and the profane. They are a place for the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ during Diakenisimou or Renewal week after Easter, as well as the space of festive ceremonies at least twice a year to celebrate the saint to whom the chapel is dedicated or the memory of deceased family members.
Architecture and geography
Most Orthodox churches on the island typically have one or three niches, i.e. sanctuaries represented with shallow recesses at the sanctum area of the church. Bi-niche chapels, however, unlike other Orthodox churches, have two niches, which are ‘even’ architecturally; they have the same height, the same width and they are located symmetrically at the sanctuary of the chapel, along its axis. The nave of the chapel is actually a single space, except for structural bearing walls that may divide the space into two areas. The only space that seems to be separate from the nave is the area of the two niches, the representation of two sanctuaries. The bi-niche chapels are always dedicated to two saints as represented in their iconography. Double or ‘twin’ representation has been known since antiquity. The twin gods such as Castor and Pollux or Dioskouri and the couples of gods, such as Eros and Aphrodite were often worshiped in the same space.
The location of the bi-niche chapels and their geographical spread is related to water, symbolising their funerary character and forming one of the characteristics of the duplicity of their character. Most bi-niche chapels are built on Mediterranean islands, others on or adjacent to the coastline, while others are built close to lakes and rivers, with only a few being built in the mainland. Water is associated with death in both pagan and Christian cultures through the idea of the thirst of the deceased. This is the belief that the dead one suffers from the thirst of anxiety, as seen in Christ’s cry on the cross, ‘I am thirsty’. This myth, alongside local beliefs, led to this topographical connection of the chapel with water.
On the other hand, the sea and in a broader sense, water, are symbols both for the beginning and the end of life, and bi-niche chapels symbolize this duality and transition through their dual architectural elements. Lakes and rivers are according to local beliefs thought to cross both Paradise and Hades, acting as a boundary, which keeps the soul of the deceased and the demons of the ancient world away from the realm of the living. For coastal cultures, the sea is also a representation of Paradise. Sometimes located in the depths of the sea and sometimes found on the islands, ‘lost in the serenity and tranquility of the ocean, or the open sea’.
A good example of the particular form of bi-niche chapels is the chapel of St Michael, which has been built below the level of the street that leads to the village, on the edge of the rock overlooking the hills and the sea. It is a Catholic bi-niche outlying chapel next to Kardiani village that was built in the beginning of the 18th century – “terminus ante quem” / “finished before that date” in 1700. In the interior of St. Michael, two niches and two altars form the sanctuary area. The faithful move between the darkness and dampness of the cavernous chapel and the outside courtyard of the chapel overlooking the open sea and its horizon. This strongly reminds the transition from light to darkness and back, or the cycle of life. The strong natural characteristics of the landscape and the connection of the natural world with an invisible world that the chapel represents is all the more highlighted and reinterpreted through the reading of scriptures during the liturgy.
“Gria Panagia” in Triantaros village, built on the slope of a hill looking to the sea, is the old cathedral of the village and one more typical example of a bi-niche chapel according to architect and researcher D. Vassiliades. The orthodox chapel of “Gria Panagia” is a small chapel whose space is supported by a cross arch that has two niches at the wall of the sanctuary. A window almost in the middle of the west wall, opposite the sanctuary, divides evenly the area between the niche of the Eucharist and the Funeral niche by casting its light on the wall of the two niches. This connects the dark interior of the chapel with the outside world, the world of nature and its cycle, as a reminder of life, death and regeneration.
In general, chapels belong either to the parish church of the village –in which case they are communal property– or, more frequently, to a village family –in which case they are private property. Moreover, the annual festivals and rituals serve to link the chapels to the village parish church and the village households. Their location outside the village core is linked to village life by the movement of the family and the other villagers at the times of festivals and rituals, revealing further the dual and mutual relationship between the countryside and the village structure.
Duality in terms of religious practice
The existence of two niches in the outlying chapels has been attributed by certain scholars to the fact that both the Catholic and the Orthodox tradition survive on the island, having actually created an indigenous tradition that traces back not only to early Christianity but is rooted in even earlier Greek custom. The two niches in the chapels were thus justified by each of these separate doctrines’ need to have their liturgies in the same chapel.
Duality is also reflected in the use of the bi-niche chapels through the religious services offered in their space: one niche is dedicated to the Eucharist and one to funeral use. This echoes the Canons of Hippolytus, according to which the Eucharist and the funerary or commemoration service should never take place on the same day or in the same space; this is also respected in bi-niche chapels, even though their configuration offers for both uses in the same space.
In Komiados village, at the outskirts of Karya village, the chapel of St. Anastasia bears all the symbols and characteristics of a bi-niche chapel. In this chapel, an iconostasis, a partition or screen on which icons are placed, separates the main body of the chapel from the sanctuary while the two niches on its wall divide the area of the sanctuary according to the chapel’s axis. The two niches reflect this ‘boundary’ of life and death during the liturgy, since the one was used for the Eucharist and the other for the burial rites.
Bi-niche chapels as symbols of love for life and fear of death
Apart from the phenomenon of biformity, duality and opposition as described above, we also remark the phenomenon of duality as “deceit”. This “deceit” is about the offerings made by the owner of the private chapel, through their commemorations in the form of artwork, or by funding the construction.
The iconographic decoration of the catholic church of Santa Sophia of Griza is a notable sample of a chapel that helps us apprehend the relation between man and the chapel. Situated at the outermost southern edge of Agapi village, in the northeast area of Tinos island, this post-Byzantine flat-roofed basilica is exceptional because of its frescos. Overlooking a gorge, the chapel was built by the family of Marcos Philipoussis in 1691. It was built next to an older temple, of which only the wall of its semicircular niche remains.
The chapel has no courtyard. The floor of the chapel is a few steps higher than the ground level, with a small door, which causes the faithful to stoop. The area of the sanctuary is not distant from the faithful but is defined by the niche, which forms part of the wall and the frescos that decorate it. The niche of the sanctuary includes the image of the Virgin Mary and her Son (Virgin Mary Platytera) circumscribed by a circle in front of her arms. MHP ΘY , Mother of God is written into red circles on both sides of her image, and along that H EΛΠΙC ΤΩΝ ΑΠΕΛΠΙCΜΕΝΩN meaning, the hope of the hopeless. Near the other frescos, which represent the Saints to whom the chapel is dedicated and close to the top right side of the icon of the Virgin Mary Platytera, there is a memorial tablet to the owner of the chapel which says: “May God remember your servant (Marcos Philipoussis), son of Marcos, and his wife (Margarita) and their children, who built this Holy Temple of St Sofia cost of their own”.
This commemoration to the owner of the chapel and his family, being in a very prominent place in the chapel, underlines the bond between the family and the chapel. The offering of the artwork to God provides an insight into the villager’s religious belief; it demonstrates the localised customs with regard to fear and piety towards death, and the awaiting of the eschatological time (the time of the Eschaton) and the time of salvation. Opposite this fresco, at the east end of the south wall there is a fresco of St Mark. The owner of the chapel also bears the same name as this saint, establishing another connection between the chapel and the benefactor.
The iconography of each chapel follows the proportions of its size. The scale in which the saints are painted allows for mediation and connection with the divine and may even reach actual human scale when depicting divine figures. Moreover, the owner of the chapel attempts to establish his or own sense of hierarchy and identification with the same-named saint by including the latter in the iconography in the chapel. Further, the offering made to the saint stands as a reminder and as a hope for retribution in the final hour.
Convergence of different elements
The chapel, representing the memory of a human death and a historical, divine death, becomes a place of convergence for the three cosmic levels - earth, heaven and the underworld. The outlying chapel witnesses the burial of a villager but also the ritualized retelling of the Resurrection of Christ through Easter festivals and the liturgies. The natural landscape, the architectural space and iconography play their individual parts in the topographic mapping of the process of regeneration, where symbols of life and death are reflected in chapels and revived through the festivals and movement of people. Bi-niche chapels, abundant on the island of Tinos, are symbols of the duality of life and death, defining a passage, an in-between space from life to death.
The architectural and geographical significance of the bi-niche chapels, as interpreted by G. Demetrokalles, provide context for the interpretation of the outlying chapels’ relationship to their location and their space as well. As historian of religion Mircea Eliade writes in his book The Sacred and the Profane, The Nature of Religion, ‘Religious man can live only in a sacred world because it is only in such a world that he has a real existence.’ What can be drawn based on this review is that religious man has the need to create a sacred world to live in, through the symbols and connotations offered to him by his composite culture. The bi-niche chapels become encounters of the duality of life and death. Their location, space, iconography reflect this duality (biformity) bearing at the same time cultural and traditional elements which support their significance as spaces for both the living and the dead. The significance of duality in such opposite situations and symbols for humanity as life and death and their representation geographically, specially and in religious ceremonies is to help people connect and accept the coexistence of events that are in fact opposed.
Tracing back the turbulent history of the island, we will realise the importance of these chapels as symbols of rebirth and salvation in the broader historical context of the continuous changes on the island. The outlying chapels reflect the continuity of tradition in the contemporary world, while festivals and rituals revitalise this tradition. They also continue to embody through duality our primary sense of continuity, our understanding of the cycle of life and death and our hope for rebirth.
Tinos, a Greek island in the north-west of the archipelago known as the Cyclades, situated in the Aegean Sea, is known especially for the strong devotion of its people to the Christian Orthodox religious tradition and for its pilgrimage honouring the Virgin Mary. Tinian piety towards the Divine had established the island as ‘holy land’ ever since antiquity, when the worship of Poseidon and Dionysus first began. After Christianity was introduced to the Cyclades with the Decree of Mediolana (A.D. 313), this manifestation of religious fervour and piety continued with increased vigour.
The seven hundred and fifty chapels on the two hundred square kilometres of the island dotting the landscape and defining the territory of the villages are a true token of the local inhabitants’ strong religiosity. These chapels are in Greek called “exocclesia”, or outlying chapels, both because of their very small architectural form and because of the fact that they are found in the countryside surrounding the village, next to cultivated fields, pathways, on top of hills, inside gorges or hinged on rocks near the sea.
Among the different types of chapels which still exist nowadays, there is one type whose location in the island’s geography, architectural form and iconography reflect different and at times opposed elements. This duplicity has been intentional, considering that outlying chapels were built both for the world of the living and for the world of the deceased, both for the Eucharist and the liturgy. This dual use is also reflected in architectural, historical and archaeological details, including religious symbols vividly present in the chapels. These chapels are called bi-niche outlying chapels and their particular interest as symbols of life and death, makes them worthy of being reviewed more thoroughly.
History
While Tinos’ oldest chapels date back to the Byzantine era (4th to 13th century), most were built during Venetian times (1207-1715) with a considerable number dating to the time of Ottoman rule (1715-1821). Today, nearly half of the outlying chapels reflect the Orthodox religious tradition through their architectural details and decoration and half reflect the Catholic tradition, both of which are equally practiced on the island.
Until the beginning of the 19th century, one of the primary functions of the outlying chapel was that of a tomb. The owner and their family had the right to be buried in the chapel. At the beginning of the 19th century, when the Catholic Church banned the burial of the deceased both in private chapels and in churches, this practice and that particular use of the chapel stopped. However, the use of the chapel as a space in-between life and death continued, since private chapels serve as a place to commemorate the deceased of the family. This is still evident nowadays, as we see the owner visit the chapel once a week to light the candle in the memory of the deceased member of the family. Outlying chapels in their stature and form create a link between the living and the dead, between the divine and the profane. They are a place for the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ during Diakenisimou or Renewal week after Easter, as well as the space of festive ceremonies at least twice a year to celebrate the saint to whom the chapel is dedicated or the memory of deceased family members.
Architecture and geography
Most Orthodox churches on the island typically have one or three niches, i.e. sanctuaries represented with shallow recesses at the sanctum area of the church. Bi-niche chapels, however, unlike other Orthodox churches, have two niches, which are ‘even’ architecturally; they have the same height, the same width and they are located symmetrically at the sanctuary of the chapel, along its axis. The nave of the chapel is actually a single space, except for structural bearing walls that may divide the space into two areas. The only space that seems to be separate from the nave is the area of the two niches, the representation of two sanctuaries. The bi-niche chapels are always dedicated to two saints as represented in their iconography. Double or ‘twin’ representation has been known since antiquity. The twin gods such as Castor and Pollux or Dioskouri and the couples of gods, such as Eros and Aphrodite were often worshiped in the same space.
The location of the bi-niche chapels and their geographical spread is related to water, symbolising their funerary character and forming one of the characteristics of the duplicity of their character. Most bi-niche chapels are built on Mediterranean islands, others on or adjacent to the coastline, while others are built close to lakes and rivers, with only a few being built in the mainland. Water is associated with death in both pagan and Christian cultures through the idea of the thirst of the deceased. This is the belief that the dead one suffers from the thirst of anxiety, as seen in Christ’s cry on the cross, ‘I am thirsty’. This myth, alongside local beliefs, led to this topographical connection of the chapel with water.
On the other hand, the sea and in a broader sense, water, are symbols both for the beginning and the end of life, and bi-niche chapels symbolize this duality and transition through their dual architectural elements. Lakes and rivers are according to local beliefs thought to cross both Paradise and Hades, acting as a boundary, which keeps the soul of the deceased and the demons of the ancient world away from the realm of the living. For coastal cultures, the sea is also a representation of Paradise. Sometimes located in the depths of the sea and sometimes found on the islands, ‘lost in the serenity and tranquility of the ocean, or the open sea’.
A good example of the particular form of bi-niche chapels is the chapel of St Michael, which has been built below the level of the street that leads to the village, on the edge of the rock overlooking the hills and the sea. It is a Catholic bi-niche outlying chapel next to Kardiani village that was built in the beginning of the 18th century – “terminus ante quem” / “finished before that date” in 1700. In the interior of St. Michael, two niches and two altars form the sanctuary area. The faithful move between the darkness and dampness of the cavernous chapel and the outside courtyard of the chapel overlooking the open sea and its horizon. This strongly reminds the transition from light to darkness and back, or the cycle of life. The strong natural characteristics of the landscape and the connection of the natural world with an invisible world that the chapel represents is all the more highlighted and reinterpreted through the reading of scriptures during the liturgy.
“Gria Panagia” in Triantaros village, built on the slope of a hill looking to the sea, is the old cathedral of the village and one more typical example of a bi-niche chapel according to architect and researcher D. Vassiliades. The orthodox chapel of “Gria Panagia” is a small chapel whose space is supported by a cross arch that has two niches at the wall of the sanctuary. A window almost in the middle of the west wall, opposite the sanctuary, divides evenly the area between the niche of the Eucharist and the Funeral niche by casting its light on the wall of the two niches. This connects the dark interior of the chapel with the outside world, the world of nature and its cycle, as a reminder of life, death and regeneration.
In general, chapels belong either to the parish church of the village –in which case they are communal property– or, more frequently, to a village family –in which case they are private property. Moreover, the annual festivals and rituals serve to link the chapels to the village parish church and the village households. Their location outside the village core is linked to village life by the movement of the family and the other villagers at the times of festivals and rituals, revealing further the dual and mutual relationship between the countryside and the village structure.
Duality in terms of religious practice
The existence of two niches in the outlying chapels has been attributed by certain scholars to the fact that both the Catholic and the Orthodox tradition survive on the island, having actually created an indigenous tradition that traces back not only to early Christianity but is rooted in even earlier Greek custom. The two niches in the chapels were thus justified by each of these separate doctrines’ need to have their liturgies in the same chapel.
Duality is also reflected in the use of the bi-niche chapels through the religious services offered in their space: one niche is dedicated to the Eucharist and one to funeral use. This echoes the Canons of Hippolytus, according to which the Eucharist and the funerary or commemoration service should never take place on the same day or in the same space; this is also respected in bi-niche chapels, even though their configuration offers for both uses in the same space.
In Komiados village, at the outskirts of Karya village, the chapel of St. Anastasia bears all the symbols and characteristics of a bi-niche chapel. In this chapel, an iconostasis, a partition or screen on which icons are placed, separates the main body of the chapel from the sanctuary while the two niches on its wall divide the area of the sanctuary according to the chapel’s axis. The two niches reflect this ‘boundary’ of life and death during the liturgy, since the one was used for the Eucharist and the other for the burial rites.
Bi-niche chapels as symbols of love for life and fear of death
Apart from the phenomenon of biformity, duality and opposition as described above, we also remark the phenomenon of duality as “deceit”. This “deceit” is about the offerings made by the owner of the private chapel, through their commemorations in the form of artwork, or by funding the construction.
The iconographic decoration of the catholic church of Santa Sophia of Griza is a notable sample of a chapel that helps us apprehend the relation between man and the chapel. Situated at the outermost southern edge of Agapi village, in the northeast area of Tinos island, this post-Byzantine flat-roofed basilica is exceptional because of its frescos. Overlooking a gorge, the chapel was built by the family of Marcos Philipoussis in 1691. It was built next to an older temple, of which only the wall of its semicircular niche remains.
The chapel has no courtyard. The floor of the chapel is a few steps higher than the ground level, with a small door, which causes the faithful to stoop. The area of the sanctuary is not distant from the faithful but is defined by the niche, which forms part of the wall and the frescos that decorate it. The niche of the sanctuary includes the image of the Virgin Mary and her Son (Virgin Mary Platytera) circumscribed by a circle in front of her arms. MHP ΘY , Mother of God is written into red circles on both sides of her image, and along that H EΛΠΙC ΤΩΝ ΑΠΕΛΠΙCΜΕΝΩN meaning, the hope of the hopeless. Near the other frescos, which represent the Saints to whom the chapel is dedicated and close to the top right side of the icon of the Virgin Mary Platytera, there is a memorial tablet to the owner of the chapel which says: “May God remember your servant (Marcos Philipoussis), son of Marcos, and his wife (Margarita) and their children, who built this Holy Temple of St Sofia cost of their own”.
This commemoration to the owner of the chapel and his family, being in a very prominent place in the chapel, underlines the bond between the family and the chapel. The offering of the artwork to God provides an insight into the villager’s religious belief; it demonstrates the localised customs with regard to fear and piety towards death, and the awaiting of the eschatological time (the time of the Eschaton) and the time of salvation. Opposite this fresco, at the east end of the south wall there is a fresco of St Mark. The owner of the chapel also bears the same name as this saint, establishing another connection between the chapel and the benefactor.
The iconography of each chapel follows the proportions of its size. The scale in which the saints are painted allows for mediation and connection with the divine and may even reach actual human scale when depicting divine figures. Moreover, the owner of the chapel attempts to establish his or own sense of hierarchy and identification with the same-named saint by including the latter in the iconography in the chapel. Further, the offering made to the saint stands as a reminder and as a hope for retribution in the final hour.
Convergence of different elements
The chapel, representing the memory of a human death and a historical, divine death, becomes a place of convergence for the three cosmic levels - earth, heaven and the underworld. The outlying chapel witnesses the burial of a villager but also the ritualized retelling of the Resurrection of Christ through Easter festivals and the liturgies. The natural landscape, the architectural space and iconography play their individual parts in the topographic mapping of the process of regeneration, where symbols of life and death are reflected in chapels and revived through the festivals and movement of people. Bi-niche chapels, abundant on the island of Tinos, are symbols of the duality of life and death, defining a passage, an in-between space from life to death.
The architectural and geographical significance of the bi-niche chapels, as interpreted by G. Demetrokalles, provide context for the interpretation of the outlying chapels’ relationship to their location and their space as well. As historian of religion Mircea Eliade writes in his book The Sacred and the Profane, The Nature of Religion, ‘Religious man can live only in a sacred world because it is only in such a world that he has a real existence.’ What can be drawn based on this review is that religious man has the need to create a sacred world to live in, through the symbols and connotations offered to him by his composite culture. The bi-niche chapels become encounters of the duality of life and death. Their location, space, iconography reflect this duality (biformity) bearing at the same time cultural and traditional elements which support their significance as spaces for both the living and the dead. The significance of duality in such opposite situations and symbols for humanity as life and death and their representation geographically, specially and in religious ceremonies is to help people connect and accept the coexistence of events that are in fact opposed.
Tracing back the turbulent history of the island, we will realise the importance of these chapels as symbols of rebirth and salvation in the broader historical context of the continuous changes on the island. The outlying chapels reflect the continuity of tradition in the contemporary world, while festivals and rituals revitalise this tradition. They also continue to embody through duality our primary sense of continuity, our understanding of the cycle of life and death and our hope for rebirth.