A Guided Tour of the Catacombs in Athens

After our Easter Sunday service and church lunch, we left the church anf explore the other interesting places in the area. We came across another church not too far from the St. Paul Anglican church. Passing by the Athens Holy Trinity Church, we saw a sign informing the public about a Catacombs tour during the weekdays. But seeing that the church door was still open, we tried our luck hoping that there would be a tour available on Sunday.

We were blessed! Because the staff in the church informed us that the church guides were here and available to give us a guided tour! The Holy Trinity Church also known as the Russian Orthodox Church - a magnificent old building decorated with huge chandeliers and numerous wall paintings and portraits. The building of the church was financed by a German King for the Russians in Athens; he even managed to have himself painted among the many portraits of the saints. We were asked to pick him out from among these saints.

  Then to the catacombs - Only when we looked carefully, we discovered the small opening on the floor just enough for one person to squeeze through and down to the secret tunnels and rooms below. We learned a lot about the catacombs hidden in the basement of the church.

This was initially a Roman Bath but later became a hiding place for the nuns and other Christians being persecuted at the time.

We learned something from our tour guide about the Roman baths. During the Roman time, the bathers, mainly men ( in some Roman bath places, there might be a separate area for men and another one for women.) would be all naked while lying around enjoying the hot bath. Being naked and seeing all these naked bodies around, some people got excited and might do things to one another and sometimes things happened.

  However, when Christianity arrived to the city, Christians believed that the Roman bath was an immoral place where sexual acts were practised therefore, decided to close these places down.

 

  We had an interesting history lesson about the Roman baths and the catacombs in Athens!

  RT, Holy Trinity Church, Athens, Greece 042026