Church of Acheiropoietos

The impressive church of the Acheiropoietos owes its name to the worshipful icon of the Virgin Mary, which according to tradition is not painted by human hand (‘Acheiropoietos’ meaning ‘made not by human hands’). The mosaics, murals, the ornamentation and the portable icons in the Acheiropoietos Church are a veritable ecclesiastical art treasure. It was built in the mid of the 5th century as a three-aisled wooden-roofed basilica with a narthex and gallery over the ruins of a Roman bath complex. The Acheiropoietos is the first Christian church converted into a mosque immediately after the fall of Thessaloniki by Sultan Murad, in 1430.