All about Zakynthos

This church is a real museum, next to St. Mark's Square, with a magnificent bell tower, which became a ruin in 1953 and then burned down. It was founded in 1617, when the plague was ravaging Zakynthos. The tower of the towering bell tower was built in the years 1695-1738 and was a true monument of architecture. In the earthquakes of 1893 the dome had fallen down. Above the south door of the church there was the inscription '1618 / errected 1900 rennovated'. On the southern front of the bell tower there was also the date of its foundation: 1695. On the wood-carved gilded iconostasis, on the left, the famous painting of Elias Moskos 'Agioi Pantes' (1659) and seven paintings by Nikolaos Kantounis. The walls were adorned with huge, and other smaller pictures by Nicolaos Kantounis. In the lower part of the matroneum (women's dpt) was the narrow long painting by the same painter, representing the procession of the icon of All Saints (1808) , during the reign of the Imperial French. In the sanctuary there were icons of various periods and valuable works of silver carving. In the centre of the church, on a wood-carved and gilded cathedral chair, there is a 17th-century in Byzantine-cretan style icon of the Virgin Mary of Myrtiotissa or Myrtidiotissa. The icon had a silver-carved panel by George Diamantis Bafas, who signed it (1816). The wood-carved and gilded Epitaph was the work of Constantine Philemon (1687). Of the artistic treasures, only the silver lining of the "Lady of Mertiotissa" survived, which was recovered from the ashes and placed in the church of Agios Nikolaos of Molos in an icon of the Virgin Mary by a younger Zakynthian painter.