Panagia Episcopi Church

The Panagia Episkopi is the former middle-Byzantine cathedral of the Greek Cycladic island of Santorini. It is also called Panagia tis Episkopis or Church of Episkopi Thiras. According to an old, now almost completely destroyed inscription, the building of the church was commissioned by the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos at the end of the 11th century, and took the place of a previous three-aisled early Byzantine basilica. The church was dedicated to the Panagia, a Greek Orthodox appellation for the Virgin Mary. The second part of the name means "episcopal". The Panagia Episkopi was the seat of the Orthodox diocese of Santorini until 1207 and again from 1537 to 1827.