"About 30 meters north of Hadrian's Arch, on the right side of the walkway, the remains of a small church can be visited. Thanks to a well-preserved inscription, it is known that it was built in 570 AD during the term of the bishop Marianos.
The single nave was entered from the main street through a narthex (narrow porch). It has a geometrically patterned mosaic floor, still intact in large parts, which includes the dedication inscription in the form of a tabula ansata in front of the step leading to the altar chamber.
A part of the mosaic floor of the Marianos Church with the inscription in the form of a tabula ansata in front of the step to the altar area. The semicircular bench in the synthron was reserved for the clergy.
The Marianos Church stands amidst several subterranean tombs dating from the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D. and was probably built by or for a group of craftsmen, potters and dyers and their families who had settled in the ruins of the Hippodrome on the opposite side of the road in the 6th and 7th centuries.
Three chambers of the hippodrome had been converted into living quarters with mosaic floors, and an inscription decorated with birds indicates that a deacon named Elias lived here. The dwelling was abandoned in the early 7th century, more than a century before the earthquake of 749 destroyed the church."
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