Agios Eleftherios Church, Athens, Byzantine church near Metropolitan Cathedral in Athens, Greece

Agios Eleftherios, the Little Metropolis, is a cross-in-square church measuring 7.6 by 12.2 metres, with a three-aisled nave whose central aisle rises above the flanking ones. Its walls are built entirely of reused marble spolia, plain masonry up to the windows and ninety sculptures above, with brick used only in the dome. The octagonal dome rests on piers that replaced four columns in the 19th century; a carved marble frieze runs above the main entrance.

The church stands on the ruins of an ancient temple of Eileithyia. Proposed dates range from the 9th century under Empress Irene to the 13th century, and Michael Choniates' tenure was long favoured. Bente Kiilerich noted that Cyriacus of Ancona saw one of its spolia inscriptions in the Ancient Agora in 1436, implying construction after that year, perhaps in the early Ottoman period. After 1841 it housed Athens' public library until 1863.

The name Gorgoepikoos is a Byzantine epithet of the Virgin meaning she who hears a request quickly and hastens to answer it, taken from a miraculous icon kept here. The church stands on the ruins of an ancient temple to Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, called Lytiria and Eleuthousa, later corrupted to Eleftherousa. On the facade above the main door runs a Pentelic marble frieze showing zodiac constellations and festival scenes for the months of the Attic calendar.

The church is located in Mitropoleos Square in central Athens, within walking distance of both Syntagma and Monastiraki metro stations. You can easily reach the area on foot and combine a visit with other nearby landmarks.

The walls carry ninety sculptures above window height, and no brick is used except in the dome. Among the spolia is a frieze of Pentelic marble over the main entrance showing the zodiac and the months of the Attic calendar. The antiquarian Cyriacus of Ancona saw one of these inscriptions in the Ancient Agora in 1436, which is why the church is now dated after that year.