Hosios Loukas
The monastery in the mountains near Delphi has two churches built close together. The larger, from the early 11th century, has a dome on eight arches and some of the finest Middle Byzantine mosaics, on a gold ground. The walls alternate stone and brick in a pattern typical of Byzantine building.
The monastery was founded in memory of the hermit Luke, who died in 953, and became an important place of pilgrimage. The smaller church, dedicated to the Theotokos, the Mother of God, is probably the older; the larger main church, the katholikon, was built in the early 11th century. The plan is a Greek cross inscribed in a square, and the dome is carried on eight arches, a solution that gave a larger and freer central space than the usual four piers.
Inside the katholikon the mosaics cover the upper surfaces: the Virgin and Child in the apse and scenes from the life of Christ in the niches. The figures are severe and frontal, set against a gold ground that lets them float in a light beyond time and space. Together with Daphni near Athens and Nea Moni on Chios, Hosios Loukas is a World Heritage Site and counts among the most important examples of Middle Byzantine art.