The temple of the Theotokos Odigitrias was built around 1310 at the northeastern edge of the Lower Town of Mystras, as the katholikon of the monastery of Vrontochiou, by the abbot Pachomios, archimandrite and great protosyncellus of the Peloponnese.

The monument, also known by the name "Afendiko," has early on attracted the interest of scholars for its original architectural type and the exceptional quality of its interior decoration, as well as for the written representation, in a special area of the temple, of the four chrysobulls issued by emperors Andronikos II and Michael IX in favor of the monastery of Odigitras of Vrontochiou.

My term as Curator of Byzantine Antiquities based in Mystras from 1970 to 1974 coincided with the scheduled maintenance work on the frescoes of Afendiko by the Archaeological Service, which sparked my in-depth engagement with the painting of the temple.

From the first days, the detailed examination of the monument's condition led me to suspect that in certain places, beneath the thick layer of salts, other previously unknown frescoes might be hidden. At my urging, the conservators began to stabilize areas whitened by salts, which were at risk of collapsing.

The surprise of the existence of frescoes after the exploratory examination in the narthex, in the western aisle, and in other locations was encouraging for the conservators, who, under the supervision of the late painter-conservator Fotis Zachariou, worked diligently and enthusiastically without interrupting their work during the winter months, as was customary at that time.

Through this work, all the surviving frescoes were revealed, our knowledge of the temple's iconography was expanded, and an opportunity was provided to study the rationale behind the organization of the iconographic program.

At the suggestion of Manolis Chatzidakis, I presented the revealed frescoes in 1974 in the series of lectures of the Christian Archaeological Society ("New Frescoes in the Afendiko of Mystras"). This initial approach served as the impetus for me to proceed with the systematic study of the monument's painted decoration.

During the elaboration of the temple's iconographic program, I found that the themes depicted in the narthex present a distinct unity, and this conclusion was supported by the revelation of the new frescoes, which restored the original decoration.

This observation led me to focus my interest on this specific subject and to proceed with the preparation of a doctoral dissertation, which was defended at the University of Athens in January 2000, under the title: "The Narthex in the Afendiko of Mystras. The Iconographic Program and Its Interpretation."

This publication retains the content of the dissertation with necessary improvements to the text and additions to the bibliography. It was deemed appropriate to expand the first chapter referring to the history of the monument and to present in more detail the iconographic program of the entire temple and the western chapels.

This expanded approach was presented in a lecture of mine, as part of the series of lectures at the Academy of Athens in memory of Manolis Chatzidakis, in February 2007. Finally, an appendix was added with texts from the 13th and 14th centuries referring to the personality and activities of the founder and abbot of the monastery, archimandrite Pachomios.