Building Name: | Saint Panteleimon of Acharnai |
Location: | Athens, Greece |
Religious Affiliation: | Greek Orthodox |
District: | Archbishopric of Athens |
Architect: | Ioannis Papadakis, Georgios Nomikos |
Architecture Style: | Byzantine Revival architecture |
Year Completed: | 1930 (partly) |
Capacity: | 2,400 m2 |
Length: | 63 m (outer) |
Width: | 48 m (outer) |
The church of Saint Panteleimon of Acharnai (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Άγιος Παντελεήμων Αχαρνών)[1] is a Greek Orthodox basilica in the center of Athens. It has a maximum length of 63 m and width 48 m and it is the biggest[2] [3] church of Greece. The church is in the downtown of the modern city of Athens, close to the high-traffic Acharnon Avenue.
The foundations of the church were laid on 12 September 1910 by King George I of Greece and it was consecrated on 22 June 1930. The church's interior paintings were created by the painter Giannis Karouzos (1937-2013). It took him 23 years to complete the painting of the 6,000 m2 surface of the interior walls of the church.[4]
Other sources consider the Cathedral of Saint Andrew, Patras and not the Church of Saint Panteleimon of Acharnai to be the largest Orthodox church in Greece.