Holy Monastery of Daphni
Domed Byzantine church famed for an eleventh-century gold mosaic of Christ Pantocrator, rebuilt after a devastating earthquake.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Holy Monastery of Daphni in Athens traces an eleventh-century Byzantine church raised over a ruined sanctuary to Apollo, then sacked by Frankish crusaders in 1205 and handed to French monks who bolted on the Gothic arches still visible around you. It follows the building through stranger turns too, including a stretch in the 1800s when Greek soldiers and later patients occupied it as a barracks and asylum, before a 1999 earthquake cracked its arches and pillars. Look up into the dome as you listen, where the church's centuries-old gaze still looks down on you.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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