Εκκλησία του Αγίου Σέργιου και του Μπακού

Not a fan of religious places but this church is so nice and has the best view.

The church of St. Sergius and Baku declared a cultural monument of the first category is the tourist attraction on the coast of Himara, where in addition to the beauties of the Ionian coast, tourists can get up close and personal with the culture and heritage. The church is built within the perimeter walls of Himara castle at its highest point, in the Barbakas area. It served as the seat of the Bishop of Himara, which became the Episcopal center in 1020, under the auspices of the Ohrid Patriarchate as evidenced by a diploma issued by the Byzantine emperor Basil II. In the northeast corner of the church was a stone wall with the year 786 written on it. According to the scholar Theofan Popa, there is a legend in Himara, which connects this date with the time of the construction of the church. However, Alexander Meksi, who studied its architecture and construction technique, dates the initial phase of construction to the end of the 20th century. X, or the beginning of the century. XI. Because of the importance of the church as an episcopal center, in 1668 a clergyman by order of the Basilian monks mentioned Himara by the name of the church, calling it Sergiopoli, meaning the city of Sergius. In the repeated uprisings of the 1480s against the Ottoman Empire, the walls of the Himara castle were severely damaged, as was the episcopal church of St. Sergius and Baku. The Himarians in their letters to the Viceroy of Emperor Charles V in Naples, in 1530, and to Pope Gregory XIII in 1577, sought the help of money and bricklayers to repair the collapsed walls of Himara and the episcopal church. At the northern entrance of the secondary area is a vaulted wall, in which are carved the Double-Headed Eagles, which scholars associate with the heraldry of the Kastriots or the symbols of the flag of Skanderbeg, which are also the symbols of our national flag. The Himara people themselves in communication with the western chancelleries and with the Popes of Rome call themselves the descendants of Skanderbeg, even in 1481 the castle was liberated by the Himara rebels in collaboration with John Kastriot, the son of the National Hero, George Kastriot Skanderbeg. The Church of St. Sergius and Baku maintained its function as the central church of the believers of Himara until 1826, when the Church of the All Saints was built. Today because of the function it has had in the past by the inhabitants it is also known as Paleoepiskopia. The church has two main stages of construction, but the church walls retain traces of numerous reconstructions. The initial construction belongs to the nave with the lower parts of the walls, because the upper parts have been built several times. An auxiliary environment on the west side was built later. The initial construction is divided into the altar area and the nave environment with a wall iconostasis. The frames of the iconostasis are decorated with floral motifs.