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Levissi was vacated in line with the stipulations of the agreement of the Turkish-Greek Population Exchange, on the 30th of June, 1923, leaving behind them 2 large churches, 14 chapels, 2 schools, 2 fountains, 2 windmills and about 1,000 houses with cisterns and toilets the remnants of which can now be seen in ruins. The buildings in Levissi were constructed without a specific development plan but in line with the slope of the land, not blocking the light and the view of each other. The main feature was the preservation of the northern panorama rather than getting the sunshine. The overall settlement plan was not enforced and buildings were constructed to fit in with the natural grounds. Their needs were met with simple solutions, local gravel and a certain type of cement and lime plaster, from the caves to the south of the Upper Church, were used in the buildings. The large corner stones with smooth surfaces, used in some constructions, seem to have been brought here from other, earlier buildings. Most of the buildings in the Levissi settlement are houses. These are of one or two stories according to the lie of the land, the ground floor having generally been used as stables or storage rooms. Most of the houses have one or two rooms. Those with three rooms are limited in number. In general there are living quarters and cisterns at the entrances of the houses. The top of the cisterns were also used as a living area. As you go up the slopes, the closel and narrowly built houses become sparse and are replaced with wider and more comfortable residences. All the floors and the ceilings, as with the doors and windows, were made of wood. However, after the population exchange, the woodwork of the abandoned houses was dismantled either to be mounted in houses by the new residents or used as firewood. Almost all the roofs were flat and covered with compressed earth. There are traces of fireplaces, niches and curtain rods in the interiors. The cisterns and toilets are outside the houses. There are no bathrooms in the houses; they must have taken their baths either in zinc-lined bathing cubicles in cupboards partitioned by woodwork, or in washtubs placed in the interior. There are significant numbers of cisterns for collecting the rainwater as there is a lack of spring water in the region. Many of the buildings have remains of chutes carrying the rainwater to the cisterns. The oval-shaped toilets adjacent to the house and sometimes at the end of the garden are connected to cesspits. The garden walls are built quite low and serve only to indicate the boundaries.
Chapels come next in density after the houses. These are scattered amongst the houses and are located on the south-western slopes, easily identifiable with their rectangular plans and packsaddle roofs.
The most significant sight in the region is the churches. The Upper Church, originally called Taksiyarhis, is located on a dominant hill in the middle of the settlement. The atrium is surrounded by high walls and the floor is covered with geometrically designed mosaics made of black and white pebbles. A door to the south leads into the churchyard. The church is built mostly with compressed stones with smooth surfaces and covered with a lime plaster. The outside is covered with a thick layer of pink plaster. The frames of the doors and windows are covered in marble. There is a cistern with three arches, now filled with rubble, underneath the antechamber. The south westerly entrance to the single nave is through the doors opening from the antechamber. In the inner part of the church, the wall painted icons and frescos have been destroyed. The roof of the interior is built as a series of vaulted semi-domes. The antechamber is covered with a packsaddle roof. The Lower Church, originally called Panayia Pirgiotissa, is located at the west end of the settlement and is better preserved than the other. This is mainly due to its having been in use as a mosque until the 1960s. The courtyard, surrounded by high walls, is reached through a door to the east. There is a belfry at the south-eastern corner of the courtyard and a small cemetery to the north-east. The floor of the atrium is paved with mosaics made of pebbles, just like the Upper Church; unfortunately it is no longer intact. The three rows of seats, adjacent to the courtyard to the south were constructed for attendants of the religious ceremonies. The bones in the charnel house at the south-western corner of the courtyard were collected here from the graves, which were dug up after a set period so that the graves could be reused. Prayers for the souls of the dead were uttered on holy days.
The exterior of the single nave church was built with grey coloured quarried stones. The frames of the doors and the windows were layered with white marble to provide a harmonious appearance to the building. The dual coloured mosaics on the ground in the courtyard and in the interior add to this harmony. There are embossed cross motifs on the arched, blind niches above the windows. On the mosaics at the pediment of the door which leads to the interior from the north, the date of 1888 is legible. The inscription above the door indicates that this is the date when a large-scale restoration was carried out on the building. The wooden door of the church is currently exhibited at the Fethiye Museum. The antechamber to the west was on two levels and there are steps leading to the second floor. The second floor of the antechamber which was made of wood was destroyed in recent years
The apse wall decorated with frescos and icons in the single nave is an outstanding piece which is largely preserved in its original form. When it was used as a mosque, the bleaching powder used to cover the frescos proved to be quite protective. However, during recent years, owing to the pursuit of profit, desire of ownership and lack of ethical and social values, some architectural elements and some of the frescos were stolen. One of the frescos was discovered in a private collection and retrieved, but the depiction of the saint and the paints used had been completely scraped off. For this reason, the building has several iron railings, which otherwise are totally incompatible with the overall surroundings. The wall of icons, with its pulpit, separates the apse from the nave where the attendants gathered. Symmetry is the main feature of the walls which are largely covered by marble panels. Above the central door there are painted figures of two angels. In the first frieze above the door there is a portrait of Christ in a horse-shoe shaped garland with 12 saints in medallion shaped garlands on both sides. In the frieze above this, rectangular panels, separated by small columns, are decorated by 13 orthodox icons, depicting Birth, Entrance to Jerusalem, Ascent to Heaven, Communion, the Last Supper and the like. The two friezes above them are decorated with relief's of plants surrounded by mouldings. The dominating colours on the wall of icons and the interior are dark yellow and blue. The antechamber and the interior of the building are covered by individual vaults in the shape of crosses. The round dome on the intersection of the cross-shaped vault is supported by half columns by the side walls.
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