Monuments

On the north bank of the Solina stream in Kassandra, close to the sea, there was an ancient city, possibly “Nea Polis” as mentioned by Herodotus. Over the centuries, the city was reduced to the late Byzantine settlement of “Solin”, which was utterly ruined during the Destruction of Kassandra, in 1821.

The basilica was built around the beginning of the 5th century and appears to have belonged to the neighboring ancient settlement (including the burial ground). On the same site, there were some older mudstone edifices. During the foundation of the basilica they made sure not to harm the cist grave, which communicated with the south side of the conch of the Holy Bema.

The church is a three-aisled basilica, the exterior dimensions of which do not exceed 24×24 m. The narthex ends are elongated, with the pastophorion (quarter of the Holy Bema) on the north side and the baptistery on the south. Inside, the pastophorion is surrounded by a built-in bench. The baptismal font, in the middle of the baptistery, is built, cruciform and below the floor level. There was a gallery over the narthex, which was accessed by a wooden staircase.   

The aisles of the nave were separated by a slightly raised, built stylobate and by a colonnade of four pairs of marble columns, 2.85 m high. The barrier of the presbytery was marble, pi-shaped (Π-shaped), with a prominent pi-shaped solea and solid, double-sided shields with engraved crosses.

The synthronon was built, pi-shaped, inscribed on the conch, and the depository for relics was on the floor, under the marble altar with its four supports. The floor of the Bema was paved with rectangular marble tiles. The central aisle was paved with mosaics of excellent quality: the paradise scene with the watering deer is depicted along with figurated rectangular frames. The floor of the narthex was also paved with mosaics, with representations of Nilotic scenes. The side aisles had earth flooring. 

During the 7th century, the eastern end of the northern aisle became the Prothesis. In the southern courtyard of the church, on the site of a slightly older building, a large independent rectangular room was built, in which medical instruments were also revealed. The basilica, the “bay” and the cemetery were protected by a stone enclosure.

The complex was probably abandoned after the earthquakes of the 7th century. At the beginning of the 14th century, the church was yet another standing ruin and a tower was built over the central aisle, where the narthex of the basilica served as a vestibule.

The historical data relating to Kassandra lead us to the suggestion that the tower of the basilica of Solin fell into disuse during the second quarter of the 15th century. With the desertion of the tower, a historical course of nearly twenty centuries came to a halt.