At the foot of Filopappou Hill, this 16th-century church is one of the loveliest in Athens, with a heavy timber roof, marble floors and the permanent scent of incense. A great 1732 fresco of St Dimitrios, astride his horse in a pose copied from ancient images of Alexander the Great, adorns the interior.
In 1648, the church was the site of a reported miracle. The Turks, ensconced on the Acropolis, prepared to fire a cannon on worshippers in the church, but the gunner was killed by lightning, saving the congregation. Hence its name, Loumbardiaris ("of the cannon").
