Thursday, October 27, 2011

The symbol of Patras


Some would say, that any blog related with city of Patras should have been started with Agios Andreas church. Well, it didn’t happen in my case, but I will try to fix it today.
The patron of the city is Agios Andreas (Saint Andrew), so it should not be a surprise that the biggest basilica in Patras is church of Agios Andreas. It is not only the biggest church in the city, but also the biggest in Greece and 2nd biggest in all the Balkans.
It is located in south-west part of the city center, where the street with same name starts (corner with Korai). The construction started in 1908, to “replace” old church of Agios Andreas, located just next to new one. It took almost 70 years to inaugurate basilica in 1974. Since then, it’s a true symbol of Patras. You will find it on every single souvenir in every single store (since 2004, most of souvenirs have both, the basilica and Rio‑Antirio bridge).
 
The highest dome is 46m high, that allows the church to top over rest of the buildings in the city. It’s visible from almost any view point (the photo was taken from Dasylio this October). The size is so huge that more than 5.000 people can attend the mess.
 

Second photo was taken from the west side of basilica, not the main entrance on the south, as it would be against the sun at the time of the day I went there. The west side had not only better light afternoon, but usually is empty and allows to take “clean” photo, without any people. I was only a bit unlucky with the car, but still not bad :-P

Photo1: NIKON D70s, Aperture priority, f 1/8, 1/640s, -0.3EV, f=105 mm (for 35mm), GIMP software

Photo2: NIKON D70s, Aperture priority, f 1/8, 1/1000s, -0.3EV, f=27 mm (for 35mm), GIMP software

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