Thasos – Thasos town – Limenas – In the town – The early Christian basilica remains in the central square

The Early Christian basilica remains in the central
square
Outside the walls of the ancient city, but now at the heart of the modern town in a small square two blocks in from the new waterfront (Polytechneiou and P. Mela Streets), are the remains of a sizeable early 6th century Christian basilica. It occupies the whole of the centre of the square, which of an evening becomes a children’s playground. A considerable number of columns—mostly in local marble, but some of Thessalian green marble—occupy the area of the nave, most of whose extent, together with the narthex, must lie under buildings to the west. In the floor in front of the apse two curious, juxtaposed semicircular marble slabs with perforations for the fixture of upright elements constituted probably the base of the ambo. A little north of the foundations of the apse is an area of fine mosaic with abstract and running-vine motifs. A little water will revive its dust-covered colours and reveal its quality and design to be that of a mosaic of the Imperial Roman age, probably belonging to a 2nd century ad house on this site. The basilica would have been virtually on the shore at the time it was constructed. It had a short history however, since it appears to have been destroyed during Slavic incursions in the 7th century.