All about Zakynthos

An ancient church in Aegialos, saved when the Venetians came to Zakynthos (1485). The church came under the rule of the public authorities, who granted it from time to time to various prominent priests. In 1621 it was granted by decree of Doges as a tribute to the respective Protopapades of the island. The church became the parish of all the Orthodox foreigners of Zakynthos and acquired a nunnery on its side. It was enriched with important works of art.  It fell by earthquakes many times and was rebuilt. In 1953, the church and its adjacent nunnery, the famous "Parthenon", burned down. During the English rule (1831), the old portable icons and precious vessels of the abandoned church of St. John the Baptist in the Castle were transferred to it. A great artistic relic was the wood-carved, gilded and velvet Epitaph, a true masterpiece of the wood-carvers Nikolaos Athiniotis and his son Antzouletos (1803). The church was rebuilt after 1953.