Hosios David - Kirche

The Church of Hosios David, also known as the Latomos Monastery, stands on the slope below the Acropolis in Thessaloniki, in Greece's Central Macedonia region. Dating to the late 5th century, it served in Byzantine times as the katholikon of the Latomos Monastery and is dedicated to David the Dendrite. Its mosaic and fresco decoration was renewed between the 12th and 14th centuries, and many surviving elements are of high artistic quality. The most notable is the 5th-century apse mosaic known as the Icon of Christ of Latomos. Since 1988 the building has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage property of the Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki.

The church was built in the late 5th century. In the Byzantine period it functioned as the katholikon of the Latomos Monastery, and its mosaic and fresco decoration was renewed in the 12th to 14th centuries.

Under Ottoman rule it was converted into a mosque, most likely in the 16th century. In 1921 it was reconsecrated as a Greek Orthodox church and received its present name. In 1988 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List together with other Paleochristian and Byzantine monuments of Thessaloniki.