UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
---|---|
Location | Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece |
Part of | Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki |
Criteria | Cultural: (i), (ii), (iv) |
Reference | 456-005 |
Inscription | 1988 (12th Session) |
Area | 0.058 ha (0.14 acres) |
Coordinates | 40°38′30″N 22°57′8″E / 40.64167°N 22.95222°E |
The Church of Hosios David (Greek: Όσιος Δαυίδ) is a late 5th-century church in Thessaloniki, Greece. During Byzantine times, it functioned as the katholikon of the Latomos Monastery (Greek: Μονή Λατόμου/Λατόμων), and was adorned with rich mosaic and fresco decoration, which was renewed in the 12th–14th centuries. The church is dedicated to David the Dendrite. Many surviving elements of the Byzantine decoration are of high artistic quality, especially the 5th-century apse mosaic the Icon of Christ of Latomos. Under Ottoman rule, the building was converted into a mosque (probably in the 16th century), until it was reconsecrated as a Greek Orthodox church in 1921, thus receiving its present name. In 1988, this monument was included among the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.[1]