On October 26, 1658, the Ottoman commander of the Acropolis garrison, a man named Yusuf Agha, gave Athens' Christian res...

On October 26, 1658, the Ottoman commander of the Acropolis garrison, a man named Yusuf Agha, gave Athens' Christian residents permission to hold a Divine Liturgy at the small chapel of Saint Demetrios on Filopappou Hill. It was a trap. He had already positioned the Acropolis' large cannon, called a loumbarda, to blast the chapel the moment it filled with worshippers. Before he could fire, a violent thunderstorm broke out over Athens. A lightning bolt struck the Ottoman ammunition depot on the Acropolis, detonating it along with the cannon. Yusuf Agha and everyone involved in the plot died in the explosion. The small church survived. From that day, the saint was given the name "Loubardiaris," Greek for the one who destroyed the cannon, and the chapel on Filopappou Hill has carried that name ever since. The chapel itself is one of Athens' oldest, built on the foundations of a Byzantine church dating to roughly the 9th century. In the 1950s, the architect Dimitris Pikionis, originally from Chios, redesigned the surrounding grounds and the exterior, combining ancient Greek and Byzantine elements. During that same restoration, conservators uncovered interior frescoes painted as far back as 1735, including depictions of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Spyridon, and the Athenian monks Barnabas and Sophronios, founders of the Monastery of Soumela. The church has drawn remarkable figures throughout its history. Saint Raphael of Lesbos served as its priest in 1447. Between 1920 and 1932, Saint Nikolaos Planas celebrated the Divine Liturgy there. Saint Nektarios prayed inside the sanctuary on multiple occasions. The altar table itself rests on an ancient Greek column. The chapel sits just steps from fragments of the 4th-century Diateichisma wall, built to protect ancient Athenians from the Macedonians, which makes the survival story of 1658 one of Athens' more remarkable historical footnotes. #Athens #SaintDemetrios #Loubardiaris