Where the Byzantinesque Meets the Urbanesque: Architectural and Hagiographic Elements of Greek Orthodox Urban

Abstract

The religioscapes that have been formed by the Greek migrant communities of Germany within a broader postmodern configuration have been brought about by reterritorialization, thus rendering the city the habitat of religious revival. In postsecular times spirituality did not subside, but it rather instigated a new form of expression that was infused by urbanity, among others, and generated an equivalent narrative, with the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Germany at the epicenter of the phenomenon under study. The emergent pattern of hybridization between byzantinesque and urbanesque is attested by the aesthetics and symbolisms that function as a statement of hybridity and integration, while the appropriation of the city on the other hand, as legitimation of the spatial parameter of belonging.