Metropolitan Church of Ypapanti

The imposing cathedral of the Visitation of the Saviour, with  the double bell towers and the big dome, is the center of the ostentatious celebrations that take place every year in the city of Kalamata, and culminate on February the 2nd at the feast of the Ypapanti Sotiros.

HISTORY

In the place of the current temple there was a Byzantine Temple destroyed by the Turkalbans in 1770.

Later a new temple was built, which it was  also destroyed in 1825, this time by Ibrahim.

The Temple  which was rebuilt during the liberation of Greece will be destroyed again by an earthquake in 1840 and rebuilt in 1854.

In 1860 the present church was founded and inaugurated in 1873. In 1886 will be damaged by the earthquake of that year that will be restored in 1894.

Exactly a century later, in 1986, the big earthquake of Kalamata will hit the Temple of Ypapanti.

Today the temple is completely restored and accessible again,while it's uniquely beautiful icons are a very visitable attraction to a lot of Ecclesiastical religious tourism and not only.

THE HOLY IMAGE OF MADONNA

At the southeast part of the temple, in the courtyard, you may notice a stone cross which is fenced. That was the location of the First Temple destroyed in 1770 by the Turkalbans with its remains used  later by the conquerors as a stable.

Within the ruins of that destroyed temple were found the half-buried icon image of the Virgin stored in today's church,after a vision of a noble citizen of the town.

The litany of the holy icon was first performed in 1841,while city leaders ordered three days of fasting and a procession with the city suffering from a disease,but as in for 1884, it was officially established, that the litany of Panagia Ypapanti,the Protectress of the city of Kalamata, will be repeated  each year.