366 Georgopoulou
Five churches in the Peloponnese incorporate Gothic and “Gothicising”
features in an organic fashion: the katholikon of the Blachernae Monastery
at Glarenza, the churches of the Virgin and the Saviour in Glatsa, the church
of the Virgin in Merbaka (Argolid) and St George in Androusa (Messenia)
(Figure 10.16). In addition to the features that are used in many other structures
like pointed arches in the openings, ashlar masonry and decorated capitals,
attached colonnettes, cornices with composite moldings, and corbels, these
five churches introduce features unknown in Byzantine architecture, such as
chamfered stone wall bases and chamfered joints between walls and roofs.
They make wide use of new types of arches, pointed or segmental, and adopt
the Gothic pointed vaults and groin vaulting with ribs. The widespread use
and high degree of assimilation of these features into the architectural whole
presuppose either western masons or the locals’ familiarity with the new
forms and, at the same time, the acquisition of the skills necessary to work
soft stone.118
118 Athanasoulis, “The Triangle of Power.”
figure 10.16 Merbaka (Argolid), Church of the Virgin.
PHOTO: AUTHOR