The
Church of Manolada, 1987
The
Blue Guide says the church of Manolada is 12 C. This is how it
looked in June 1987 when I was following the 1205 route of the Franks around the Morea, plus visiting Villehardouin sites. Because I can find no pictures of the church on the interwebs, and no substantive information either, I thought it might be moderately useful to post the photographs I took on a return visit in 1995 with my daughter, Rosalind. The photographs were made with a disposable camera at high noon in August: the heat was bewildering, the glare is evident in the pictures, and I didn't really know much about what I was seeing. (I will be grateful for more information, especially of the two saints.) I believe the dedication is to the Virgin. I have gimped the frescos: they were very pale and with the sunlight photographed even paler.
The thing I loved, though, was that one of the workmen -- it was being restored -- said, "The archaeologist is not here today so we can let you come inside."
Iconostasis
Pantokrator
Deisis
Miracle of St. Nicholas
Miracle of St. Nicholas
Burial of St. Nicholas
Saint
Saint
Ag. Giorgios
Ag. Demetrios
Carving, I think, of a centaur.
On my first visit, I went down to the beach where in 1316, Ferdinand of Majorca
could see the ships from which he expected aid standing off-shore. The husbands (Ferdinand and Louis of Burgundy) of William Villehardouin's granddaughters (Isabelle and Maude) were to fight that day over control of the Morea. The Angevins against the Catalans. Ferdinand prayed at this little church before the battle, before he was defeated and beheaded on the battlefield. His head was exhibited over the gate of Clarentza. Louis died two months later.
The
beach at Manolada, June 1987,
the wind blowing out from shore as it did that day in 1316.
