Name of Object:

Reliquary of St-George Chiopolites from Aivali

Location:

Athens, Greece

Holding Institution:

Benaki Museum

 About Benaki Museum, Athens

Date of Object:

1816

Author:

Pantazis Marangopoulos

Inventory Number:

23792

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Parcel guild silver

Dimensions:

16 cm

Description:

The reliquary contained the head of George Chiopolites, who was martyred in Aïvali / Kydonies in 1807. The container made for the head has intricate rococo decoration with ribbons, bows, roses, blank heraldic shields and St George holding the attributes of a neomartyr under the imposing two-headed eagle of ecclesiastical authority. From the mid-eighteenth century, thanks to special administrative treatment or privileges, the inhabitants of Aïvali transformed what had been a small fishing village into a flourishing commercial centre on the Aeolian coast. The inscription on the reliquary refers to the goldsmith and to the Guild of Soap-Makers, which was one of the biggest trade associations in the town. It also refers to Sophronios, who oversaw the commissioning, and has been identified to the parish priest and a close relative of Theophilos Kaïris, a teacher at the Academy of Kydonies who was later expelled from the Church under the free Greek state for his revolutionary ideas and was to die in prison, the last ideologue of the Enlightenment.

Type of Object

Metalwork

Citation of this web page:

Ballian 1992, 84, no. 44 "Reliquary of St-George Chiopolites from Aivali" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;gr;6;en

Prepared by: Ballian 1992, 84, no. 44

MWNF Working Number: GR 006