A contribution to the study of the "Athonite" church type of byzantine architecture

The recent study of the history and architecture of the Vatopedi monastery’s katholikon, initially built as a cross-insquare - composite four-column type church with lateral apses (“choroi”) and a two-storey narthex, can serve as a secure base for the study of the so-called “Athonite” church type, which in all likelihood had been already completely formed in Constantinople or in the area under its infl uence, before its architectural plan was applied on Athos.