Most of the churches of the Early Christian period are of the "Hellenistic" basilica type, the principal features of which are emphasis of the longitudinal axis, the two-storey colonnades dividing the interior into aisles, the semicircular apse on the east, the narthex, the galleries and the timber roof.
Variations are encountered either with a transept (e.g. Ayios Demetrios, Thessalonike) or with a triconch in the east section (e.g. basilica at Ayia Paraskevi, Kozani). Examples of the rarer circular buildings (whose principal feature is the dome) include the Rotunda in Thessalonike and a church at Amphipolis.
Unique in Greece are the Octagon and the domed basilica at Philippi, and also the triconch church at Akrini, Kozani. The cruciform basilica, the symbolic type -par excellence-, is represented by one church on Thasos and the katholikon of the Latomou Monastery in Thessalonike.
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