New iconography for our parish AND.. ties to Greece and France

[FenderTL5]

Our parish will be getting new iconography soon, beginning this week (I think).
The scaffolding is up as of Thursday.

Another step as we head toward our Centennial Celebration in November.

 

[FenderTL5]

Now for the Paris and Greece connection.

Our church is modeled after a church just south of Athens Greece. The story goes, that the architect that was chosen had never designed a church before. He had loads of experience with strip malls. The first design would've been perfectly acceptable for any number of evangelical/protestant contemporary churches. However, the folk at our parish decided, after seeing the design with bewilderment, to send the architect on a church tour of Greece and to await a more suitable follow-up design.

Here's a glimpse into the church he eventually decided to emulate. You can see the resemblance above.


Agios Sostis (Christ the Saviour) Church

 

[FenderTL5]

Now for the Paris part.

The church which was erected during 1901-3 was originally built for commercial purposes. It was first constructed in 1898 to serve as Greece’s pavilion for the Exposition Universelle de 1900, a world’s fair held in Paris in November of 1900. Each country participated in the exhibition with a separate pavilion which represented a characteristic monument or building.

The design of the Greek pavilion was assigned to the French architect Lucien Magne and it took the form of a Byzantine church.

When the exhibition was over most of the pavilions were demolished, but some were dismantled and transported back home. That was the case with the Greek one as - after getting dismantled- it was shipped to Athens by the initiative of the city’s mayor, Spyros Mercouris. Subsequently the municipal council decided to reconstruct the Greek pavilion as a temple of Christ the Saviour, on the location where the assassination attempt on King George took place.

 

[FenderTL5]

btw.. if you noticed the chandelier in the Agios Sostis Church...
Someone recently 'donated' the chandeliers for our parish and they are scheduled to be installed before the Centennial as well.

 

[ArmyMatt]

very cool!

 

[~Anastasia~]

Nice. It's always nice to see the similarities between Churches and some of the meaning there.

 

[ikonographics]

Agios Sostis is near where I live! It is a really beautiful Church.

 

[FenderTL5]

Agios Sostis is near where I live! It is a really beautiful Church.

I would love to visit this church some time.

Here's an old photo of the exterior of our parish.
Since this was taken, we have added transepts to each side completing the cruciform.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I would love to visit this church some time.

Here's an old photo of the exterior of our parish.
Since this was taken, we have added transepts to each side completing the cruciform.

View attachment 208199

is that Holy Trinity in Nashville?

 

[FenderTL5]

is that Holy Trinity in Nashville?

Yes indeed.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Yes indeed.

great place, Fr Greg is awesome.

 

[FenderTL5]

great place, Fr Greg is awesome.

In my opinion, that is an understatement but I could be biased a bit.

The iconographer arrived last Thursday. There was lots of 'prep-work' that was done but nothing to really show as of yesterday. Initially, it was estimated that it would take 10 days once the iconographer was on-site. I don;t know if that is still the plan or if the time-table has been adjusted.
Hopefully, there will be something to show by next weekend.
Father said that he saw some of the canvases unrolled while they were being staged and they are incredible.

 

[ArmyMatt]

In my opinion, that is an understatement but I could be biased a bit.

The iconographer arrived last Thursday. There was lots of 'prep-work' that was done but nothing to really show as of yesterday. Initially, it was estimated that it would take 10 days once the iconographer was on-site. I don;t know if that is still the plan or if the time-table has been adjusted.
Hopefully, there will be something to show by next weekend.
Father said that he saw some of the canvases unrolled while they were being staged and they are incredible.

awesome, I remember when the Church in York added iconography and it was awesome to see the icons all laid out. climbing the scaffolding to the ceiling was cool too.

 

[FenderTL5]

UPDATE: Iconography in progress, not yet complete.

 

[ArmyMatt]

very nice!

 

[~Anastasia~]

Beautiful! I'd always wondered how that was done.

 

[prodromos]

Beautiful! I'd always wondered how that was done.

Ah well, in the old days it was painted directly onto the walls and ceiling. Iconographers get it easy today

 

[~Anastasia~]

Ah well, in the old days it was painted directly onto the walls and ceiling. Iconographers get it easy today

I had a feeling it was probably done that way in the past.

Some Churches I've seen, would probably require the iconographer to move there for some time, maybe years, working full time, if they had to be painted directly onto the surface.

Some of ours (Pantokrator, Angels around Him, the Gospel writers) appear to be painted on another surface and applied. I think maybe the Platytera was painted directly? Maybe some large icons of Christ behind the altar as well. I'm guessing. Most of our other ones are framed and hung, except for the stained glass windows and the iconostasis.

I'd be very curious to see the parish I visited in Dallas, since they were partway through the process when I was last there. I think it was St. Nicholas. Beautiful Church, wonderful people, and a priest that made quite an impression on me.

 

[FenderTL5]

I extracted one photo from yesterday live stream. It's the Hospitality of Abraham icon that is up top (straight shot from the rear video camera).
It was announced that there will be a meeting this week to discuss the next phase. The iconographers fly out (to Detroit iirc) this week and the scaffolding comes down.
I will post photos next week without the scaffolding.

 

[Ioustinos]

Which saints are on the ends of the iconostasis - St. Nektarios and ?