Saint Nicholas ‘stis Maroulainas’ was built shortly after the mid-thirteenth century. It is one of the smallest cross-roof churches in the Peloponnese. Most of the wall-paintings in its interior are dated to the end of the thirteenth century. They include representations of the principal feasts of the Dodecaorton and an extensive cycle with scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas. The built iconostasis was constructed and decorated with paintings in a later period. The monument was restored completely in the years 2010 and 2011, with the donation of Thanassis and Marina Martinos and the enthusiastic support of the local community. The project was supervised by the then 26th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities. It involved extensive works to consolidate and restore the monument, including reinstating the original slopes of the roof and covering it with old handmade tiles, consolidating the vaults, cleaning the joints and the masonry with preservation of the earlier mortars, filling in elements of the decorative brickwork, consolidating and cleaning the wall-paintings, laying a new floor and installing wooden door and window frames in the interior of the church.
In addition, the surrounds of the church were rehabilitated and the traditional stone paving was repaired. The interventions not only restored the formal features of the Byzantine monument, but also revealed the impressive rocky outcrop on which it stands and brought to light a rare epigram inscribed on the Cross of Christ in the scene of the Crucifixion – a unicum in Byzantine art.
