A richly decorated vine branch with grapes, in between sparrows eating the fruit or playing with the leaves, and in the center the mythical phoenix bird with halo and 13 rays on its head. This representation adorns the mosaic floor of a one-room cemetery church from the 5th AD Century, so far the oldest in Thessaloniki and the only one in Europe with a representation of a palm tree on the floor.

The mosaic floor was located under the sanctuary of the small church from the beginning of the 5th century AD, on which was built around the middle of the same century the three-nave basilica found during the excavations at the Sidrivani metro station in front of the building of the Theological School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

The excavator of the basilica, professor of Byzantine archeology and art at AUTH, Melina Paisidou, says that "the palm tree as a central and dominant theme within a tendril surrounded by animals has no other equivalent on a mosaic floor in the European area".

Ms. Paisidou's many years of research have shown that floor mosaics with a palm tree are found in the Temple of the Holy Martyrs in Hama, Syria (442 AD), in the Temple of Umm Jerar in Gaza (6th cent. Century AD) in the Justinian Basilica of Savatra in Tripolitida (Libya), while corresponding mosaics have been found in the Arch of St. Peter in the Vatican and in sarcophagi from the 3rd and especially the end of the 4th century AD from the Vatican necropolis.

A representation of a palm tree is also found in the dome of the Rotunda in Thessaloniki, in the glorification of Christ, in a composition with concentric circles filled with plants and fruits, a rainbow and a starry sky surrounding the figure of Christ as an allegory of paradise. Of the depiction in the Rotunda, only the head of the phoenix with the nine-rayed halo and the beginning of its neck have survived. This has been called the only known representation of a palm tree in the Greek area. But the idea of the mosaic on the floor of the three-aisled basilica at the metro station Sidrivani, changes the facts.

"The palm tree, symbolizing immortality, incorruption and rebirth, with the halo on its head symbolizes Christ and is combined in the mosaic floor with the soteriological and Eucharistic content of the vine, which acts as a condition of immortality through the Holy Eucharist. Paradise is represented by the depiction of birds among the leaves, while the pecking of the grapes represents a participation in the Holy Eucharist," says Ms. Paisidou. According to her, 7 sparrows were found, but she estimates that there were 12 in total, as many as the Apostles.

Moreover, according to Ms. Paisidou, "the regenerative power of the phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, and the uniqueness of its status led it to become a symbol of the eternal power of the Roman emperors. That is why the phoenix is depicted on Roman coins, namely on earlier coins from the Antonine era, but also on coins of the first Byzantine emperors of the 4th century, such as Constantine, Constantius II, Valentinian II and Theodosius I."

The myth of the palm tree contains common elements with the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus, while the bird's last appearance on earth, as noted in a Coptic text from the first half of the 6th century, coincides with the time of Christ's birth. The phoenix with its radiant halo, depicted on tombs of the first Christian centuries, symbolizes the victory of life over death and the bliss of heavenly life.

The sword of the Gothic warrior

The mosaic floor was found in the sanctuary of the one-room church of the cemetery, where seven tombs were excavated, including that of the Gothic warrior, who was buried with all his weapons, as part of the shield, the spearhead and his sword were found folded in half, as he would no longer use them. The custom of the folded (not broken) sword is known in Western Europe, but was found for the first time in Thessaloniki and in Macedonia in general, according to Ms. Paisidou and her partner, Errikos Maniotis.

As to the question of what a Gothic warrior was doing in Thessaloniki, the sources provide an answer: by the time of Theodosius II, in the middle of the 5th century - exactly as the tomb was chronologically placed, between 430 and 450 AD - Gothic mercenaries had settled in Thessaloniki and the wider Balkan region to protect the borders of the empire from enemy raids. In fact, especially in Thessaloniki, the Goths are associated with the bloodshed and the great massacre of 7,000 Christians in the Hippodrome in 390 AD.

In the bowels of the metro the three-aisled basilica

The one-room cemetery church from the beginning of the 5th century was destroyed and on its foundations, in the middle of the same century, the three-aisled basilica was built, with a visible length of 13.50 meters and a total width of 16 meters, belonging to the small basilicas. The impressive mosaic was kept at the base of the sanctuary, as it was considered a great work of art. Over the years, the temple was renovated twice, while in the 7th century it was destroyed either by Arab-Slavic raids or - most likely - by an earthquake, and finally, sometime in the 8th-9th century, it was abandoned.

"The location of the church, its early age, its duration and its repeated renovations make it one of the most important ecclesiastical institutions of Thessaloniki in the first millennium. It is possible that its construction is related to one of the famous Thessalonian martyrs of the persecution under Maximian and Diocletian. The gradual development of the building and the large adjoining rooms could also indicate a monastic institution of early Byzantine Thessaloniki," says Ms. Paisidou.

To whom was this temple dedicated? Research has not yet yielded any results on this question. The testimony of the French traveler Paul Lucas is considered quite serious, when in 1714, while walking in front of the Kassandreotiki Gate(or else Gate of Rome or Kalamaria Gate) and among the monuments, he saw the site of the once beautiful church of Agios Georgios, of which only 10 or 12 columns remain. In today's archaeological excavation, only the bases of the columns were uncovered, and according to Ms. Paisidou, this is "a charming hypothesis".

The archaeologists excavated, photographed and recorded the three-aisled basilica, for which the Central Archaeological Council had originally decided to move it to the AUTH campus, but a later decision gave it the green light to bury both the church and the seven tombs.

However, all the movable finds have been excavated, preserved and are on display in one of the museums being built for the metro's antiquities. Among them is the mosaic floor with the unique representation of the palm tree, which will be brought back to life.