The Antivouniotissa building complex is composed of the building containing the main church with its three narthexes, the outdoor courtyard with its bell tower, and the rectory, a two-story structure which bounds the building complex on the east. The main church consists of a single central rectangular nave, with di-mensions of 20.50 x 9.10 m, following the normal proportions of Corfiot churches (2:1). This rectangular type of church with a single central space and wooden, tile-covered gable roof is called the wooden-roofed “basilica”. This architectural type, of public character and Greco-Roman origins, was used for churches from the Early Christian period and in time became almost exclusively predominant in Corfu and the other Ionian Islands. To the East, on a level raised by three steps, is the spacious Holy Altar or Ierón. It consists of a central apse flanked by two smaller ones, that of the Prothesis on the north, and that of the Diakonikon on the south. All three project from the church’s exterior footprint and are visible from the outside.
On its other three sides (north, west, and south), the nave is surrounded on its exterior by a closed portico approximately four meters wide, shaped like a Greek Π, and with a lower roof than that of the nave. This portico-corridor, called nárthikas in Corfu, comprises a unique feature of the city’s churches. Antivouniotissa is the only monument that preserves intact this typical Corfiot church form with surrounding narthex. This area did not have a liturgical use; rather, it served together with the nave as a cemetery in accordance with the custom of the times, as noted above. It has a simple sloping wooden roof. Its rafters are supported on larger beams set lengthwise along the walls of the church in a series of stone consoles (It. mensole). During a second building phase, the gynaikonitis was built above the west narthex on the upper level. The walls of the north and south narthexes extend outwards to the east, creating a closed open-air courtyard. The northern and southern doors of the nave are aligned with the corresponding doors of the narthexes. The main entrance is on the north, where there are twin doors symmetrically aligned with the monumental stairway leading up from the public coastal road. This difference in height results in an especially impressive sea-view from the church’s interior.
On a map from the late period of Venetian rule (after 1780), the presence of a building attached to the western side of the church is attested. Thus, the arches in the west narthex that remain visible but are now blocked up indicate that they were once openings for communication withthis building, which has not been preserved. Further archival research could fully document this hypothesis, which in other respects appears obvious. In contrast, the door on the southwest side with its oval opening (oculus), blocked up and today visible only on the wall’s exterior, appears to have pre-existed, and been in use from early on. On its exterior, the style of the church is simple and unadorned. Its arched, rectangular, or circular openings have stone frames, called “értes” in the local dialect. The church’s door frames are more carefully-finished, especially that of the entrance door in the south narthex, which has relief decoration. The windows do not have a regular shape or size, and most probably were opened at different periods. The wall surfaces are plastered, and have as their single ornament the composite frame of tiles in the form of a dentil band, an element which has its source in Byzantine architecture, supported on small stone consoles called fouroúsia. Overall, the complex combines on its exterior a simple overall appearance with the successful modeling of its heavy masses. Thus, it creates an impressive and harmonious composition, fully incorporated into the man-made environment of the city of Corfu’s historic center. The nave forms the most important and impressive part of the entire complex. In contrast with its exterior facade, its interior is particularly richly decorated and impressive. The nave is lit by four arched openings geometrically arranged high on the walls, and the large, characteristically Renaissance circular opening (oculus) on its west wall. The walls are entirely surrounded by a row of wooden stasidia (pews) supported on a raised platform, equipped with impressively high backs and arm-rests. The wooden pews’ high backs with the simple frame customary in Corfu follow prototypes of official rooms in state Venetian palazzi, as we see in related engravings of that era. The church’s windbreaks, “boúsoules” in the local dialect, are wooden and of the same form, comprising a unified stylistic whole.
An especially important stylistic element, both for Antivouniotissa itself as well as for the ecclesiastical architecture of Corfu in general, is its gilt wood-carved “ouranía” (ouranόs = “sky” in Greek). In the Ionian Islands, the flat ceiling affixed to the wooden roof of the church is called the “ouranía”. Decorated either with wood carvings or paintings, it too comprised a Venetian Baroque influence. Antivouniotissa’s ceiling, probably the earliest example in the city, is decorated only with gilt wood carvings. It is divided into equally sized square coffers, arranged in four rows of ten coffers per row. The coffers are enclosed by a wide gilt frame with a delicate rope-shaped relief zone, with concave and convex moldings in off-white. At each of the frame’s intersections, there is a lion’s head with wide-open eyes and mouth, recalling the theatrical masks (mascheroni) of the Italian Baroque in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, or even the apotropaic masks of popular tradition, which warded off evil. A simpler and narrower gilt frame borders the smooth flat background of the coffers in blue-green, a reference to the color of the sky. Five gilt wood-carved ornaments are set on the background. The round central ornament iscarved from a single piece of wood and is composed of a medallion in a pierced wreath. On the medallion is depicted the face of a small angel with a lively expression, luxuriant hair, and schematically-formed wings; the pierced wreath is formed by continuously opposed acanthus leaves and shoots. In the four corners, the lozenge-shaped ornaments are created by leaf-shaped shoots with bands, and arranged geometrically. It is noteworthy that for the central ornament, two alternating types were employed for the faces of the angels. The entire composition of the ceiling, with its geometric and rhythmic repetition of coffers in combination with the colors and worn gilding on the wood-carved ornaments, lends a particular stateliness and opulence to the interior of the church, thus creating a unique sense in visitors. Wooden ceilings-ouraníes with coffers are known from the Roman age. Later, during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, they were very often found in churches in Venice, Rome, and other Italian cities, as well as in secular buildings. The prototype for the Antivouniotissa ceiling should be sought in these Italian ceilings. It is a unique example of such a ceiling, and may be dated to the seventeenth century, despite the fact that the related archival research to discover the exact year of its construction has not been carried out. The ouraníes in many other Corfiot churches differ from that of Antivouniotissa, since they combine wood-carved decoration with painting. They are more recent, and had as their model the most important ouranía of all, that of the church of Saint Spyridon (done in 1727), a landmarkin Heptanesian art.
The painted stenciled decoration on the walls of Antivouniotissa forms a unique feature encountered in Corfiot churches; it, too, is the result of RenaissanceVenetian influence. From the fifteenth-sixteenth century onward, the practice of adorning official chambers in secular palaces and churches with costly materials that hung on the walls or on columns became generalized in the Veneto area. These fabrics had a clear connection to medieval “tapestries”. Oftentimes, instead of materials, pieces of leather decorated with flowers and floral motifs done with gold stamping or embroidered with gold or silver threads were hung on walls. Their length could vary, and was not always the same. Thus, in some cases they covered entire walls, while in others there were shorter, covering only the upper zone of the wall below the ceiling cornice. They were hung with the aid of small metal hooks set in the same cornice. Such small hooks were found in the cornice of the ceiling of Antivouniotissa during restoration works in 1992-1994. This clearly demonstrates that the church had comparable decorative fabrics or gilded leather on its walls. However, for reasons of economy, from early on there was also observed the phenomenon of decorative materials or gilded leathers ending up in the form of painted decoration done directly on the walls, like the “damask stencil” we see in Antivouniotissa today. The use of painted stenciled wall decoration should also be combined with the decrease in wall paintings in churches, which occurred in parallel and gradually in Corfu. Thus from the seventeenth century onward, “stencils” began to replace paintings on the walls of churches, in obedience to the aesthetic demands of the age.
All the above elements, including the high-backed pews, the stenciled wall decoration, and the elaborate ceilings (ouraníes), characterize the so-called “Heptanesian basilica” as it evolved over the centuries in the Venetian-ruled Ionian Islands under the manifest influence of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque. Antivouniotissa, by combining all these elements with the special element of the narthex, may be considered as a model “Heptanesian basilica”, and there is no doubt but that it comprises the most notable, earliest, fullest, and best-preserved example of this type of church on Corfu.
