Deesis

A Byzantine icon of the Deesis, preserved from the Church of St George of the Hill in Alaya, one of the city’s most important and oldest Christian churches. The church was built within the Castle, on the height above the harbour, and for centuries served as the spiritual centre of the Greek Orthodox (Rum) community. Dedicated to St George, the patron saint, it is linked to the local tradition of miraculous deliverance from the dragon beneath the Red Tower.
Despite severe wear, the icon preserves parts of the original composition: Christ enthroned, the Virgin Mary, and St John the Forerunner—an archetypal Deesis arrangement. The heavy patina, cracks in the wood, and losses of paint layers attest to centuries of devotional use within the Castle’s humid environment.

It was later conserved by the icon painter Dimitris Alevizopoulos.