All about Zakynthos

Church and monastery of the Patron Saint of Zakynthos in the district of Ammos. The old church of Agios Dionysios was provisionally founded in 1708 by Fathers of the monastery of Strophades and in 1764 a larger church was built. The carved wooden iconostasis was the work of Anastasios Apost. Pastras. With the earthquakes of 1893 it was demolished and the well-known pre-earthquake church was built. In 1925 the new and anti-seismic church was founded. The bell tower was built in 1846 and completed in 1851. In the earthquakes of 1893 the upper arch fell and was replaced with a dome. In 1953, this bell tower also fell - but the anti-seismic church was not damaged in the slightest - and another one was built in its place, reminiscent of the original one. The most important works of art of the church are the following: - The Litany of the relic of Agios Dionysios, oil on canvas, work by Nikolaos Koutouzis, a work depicting the procession of Agios Dionysios in the last years of Venetian rule (1766) and composed of religious, ethnographic, portrait, historical and landscape elements. It is an impressively large portable painting. The existence of a chronology, the fidelity of the presentation of the procession according to a certain protocol and the participation of well-known figures of the period make the work an example of painting on historical subjects. - The silver-carved urn enclosing the holy relic, a work by Georgios Diamanti Bafas, designed by Nikolaos Kantounis, depicting the Assumption of Saint Dionysiοs (1821). - In the iconostasis there is also a silver-carved composition "By the hand of Georgios/Diamanti Bafa/1820", which shows Saint Dionysios full-face and seated on a despotic throne. The representation is framed by twelve rectangular small icons depicting events from the life and miracles of the Saint. - The sacred silver box with the miraculous hand of the Saint, also the work of Bafa - The gilded Gospel of Bafa (1812) with miniature representations - The silver-carved Gospel of Athanasius Nikolaos Tzimouri - The silver chandelier of Bafa, ending in a winged angel and many more. The church and the adjacent monastery have the name "Monastery of Strophades and Agios Dionysios". The holy relic was transferred from Strofadia on 24 August 1717 and placed in the church of Panagia in the suburb of Kaliteros and after three years in the church of the same name in Ammos. Until 1724 Zakynthos had Agios Ioannis the Baptist as its Patron Saint. In the same year the Community of Zakynthos proclaimed the miraculous Saint Dionysios the Patron of the Island.