Agiou Andrea Holy Temple (New)

The new church of Agios Andreos is located next to the old one and the decision to build it was made at the beginning of the 20th century.

An international competition was held for the assignment of its design and the designs of the French architect Aim. Robert.

The foundation of the church was made on January 1, 1908 by King George I, and reinforced concrete was used for its construction.

Problems in the original foundation and the high cost of the works were some of the reasons that delayed the construction work, while there were many objections to the design of the church, which did not follow the Byzantine tradition.

In 1934 the central part of the church was raised, but it remained unfinished, while in 1945 the plan was modified to be closer to the Byzantine style.

After years of work, the new church of Agios Andreos was inaugurated on September 26, 1974 by the then new Bishop of Patras Nikodimos and the Archbishop of Athens, and began to be decorated with paintings following the Byzantine style, to become a brilliant ecclesiastical monument, which Together with the historic old church, they are a pole of attraction for thousands of pilgrims from every corner of Greece and from all over the world.

APOSTOLOS ANDREAS

The Apostle Andreas, according to the ecclesiastical tradition, passed through Bithynia, the Black Sea, Propontis, Chalkidona, Byzantium and Thrace, passed through Macedonia and Thessaly and ended up in Achaia.

In Patras he taught the word of Christ and with his miracles he attracted to the Christian religion many believers, including the wife of the Roman Antipatos Aegeatis, Maximila and his brother Stratoklis.

For this reason, Aegeatis ordered the arrest and imprisonment of Apostolos Andreas, who ordained Stratoklis, the first bishop of Patras, from prison.

The Apostle Andreas was led to the place where he was preaching, near the beach, where he was crucified, in the year 66, under Emperor Nero.

The relic of the Saint, without Kara, was transported to Constantinople in the 4th century by order of the emperor Constantine.

One thousand two hundred years later, Thomas Palaiologos, leaving the Peloponnese that fell to the Ottomans, transported the Holy Cross to Italy, where he handed it over to Cardinal Bessarion, who in 1462 gave it to Pope Pius II.

Kara returned to Patras from the Catholic Church on September 26, 1964.

The worship of the Saint was maintained by both the Greeks and the Latins.

Saint Andreas is connected, according to the tradition of the city, with its salvation from the sieges of the Slavs and the Saracens, in 805, and miraculous-healing properties are attributed to the holy water that is next to the Old Temple, which in ancient times was its source Dimitra.

Dedicated to his worship in recent years, initially the church built between 1836 and 1843, to designs by Lys. Kaftantzoglou and later the youngest and oldest, founded in 1908 and inaugurated in 1974.