 The present-day town of Demre - Myre in antiquity - boasts a very touching historic and architectural feature: St. Nicholas Church.
Born in Patara in about 300 A. D., St. Nicholas studied in Xanthus and became bishop in Myra, where he preached until he was martyred in 325 A. D., during the Diocletian persecutions. He was buried in this church built along Byzantine lines: three apses preceded by an atrium and a double narthex, with frescoes and mosaic flooring. Immediately after his death, visitors to his tomb were miracously cured; that is how Myra became a scared place and destination of pilgrims. Destroyed and rebuilt several times, the church was sacked by vandals following on the Arab incursion in 1034. It was then surrounded by a protective wall by order of the Emperor Constantine Monomacus IX and his wife Zoe. Lastly, in 1087, Italian traders took the saint's bones to Bari, where he was proclaimed patron of the town. Legend has it that when the Italian traders opened the sarcophagus containing the saint's remains, they were overwhelmed by a strong scent of myrrh, which emanated from his bones. By virtue of another legend, St. Nicholas became the patron saint of children to whom he brings Christmas presents.
This is a place of great interest for Christianity if it is also true that St. Paul met with the apostles for the last time before going to Rome. A couple of kilometres north of Demre, the ruins include a score of tombs arranged on the cliff in a jumble overlooking the sea; perhaps this is the most amazing collection of rock tombs in the whole ofAnatolia. Myra comes from the Greek word «mirra»; we know for certain that it dates back at least as far as the V century B. C. and was one of the most important towns in the Lycian Federation. Its superiority lasted in time; in fact, during the Byzantine era Theodosius II promoted it to capital of Lycia. Unfortunately, its promotion coincided with the Arab predations that commenced during the VII century and continued for over two centuries. In 809, Myra was conquered by Harun el- Rashid and the city was gradually abandoned.
Evidence of its glorious past are the rock tombs dating back to the Lycian era and the Graeco-Roman theatre. On the subject of its unique necropolis, it was a Lycian custom to bury their dead high up because they believed that in this way they were more easily transported to heaven. These funeral monuments date from the VI to the III century B. C.: built isolatedly or cut out of the rock-face; several of the façades have flat or sloping roofs carved to imitate wooden beams supported by pillars, suggesting that they are copied in form from wooden temples; the Greek temple is revealed by the rich decorated architraves. The richness of decorations - some still have traces of colour - and in particular the magnificence of sculptured bas-reliefs, usually portraying the dead person surrounded by his family, testify to the exceptional taste and artistic sense of local artists for the time.
The same decorative taste can be found in the theatre, built in Greek style, that is, against a hill with fourteen flights of steps dividing the cavea in thirteen sectors, with twenty-nine rows of seats in the lower part and nine in the upper
Here too the stage wall featured bas-reliefs with garlands, friezes and theatrical masks. |
