The Orthodox Church, Gallicianò
Descrizione

On the summit of the hamlet of Gallicianò stands the small church dedicated to Our Lady of Greece [Madonna della Grecia– Panagia tis Elladas] which has been recently entrusted to the care of the monks of Mount Athos who have charge of the monastery of San Giovanni Therestis [lit. Saint John the Reaper] in Bivongi.
Opened for worship in 1999, it houses an icon of the Our Lady of Greece; outside of it stands a simple bell tower surrounded by old houses. The church also contains a statue of St. John (sixteenth century), a baptismal font, two bells dated 1508 and 1683, and some small earthen-ware lamps.
The small Byzantine church, in rustic style, was obtained by transforming a stone building at the top of the village into a place of worship available to the faithful and bearing concrete testimony, in a renewed atmosphere of ecumenism, to a return by Orthodox pilgrims to Greek-rite shrines. The building was restructured thanks to the endeavours of architect Domenico Nucera who is from Gallicianò. Next to the church a small amphitheatre overlooking the valley of the Amendolea river was also built. A few years ago after centuries of absence, a small community of Greek-Orthodox monks settled here again.





