Stone sculpted fantastic winged creatures on the capital of a column on the exonarthex of the Church of St Mary, 13th century, in the Ardenica Monastery, an Eastern Orthodox monastery near Apollonia, Fier, Albania. 8 of these capitals all display various monsters and fantastic creatures. The church is of Byzantine-orthodox architecture but with many Romanesque features, and contains frescoes by Kostandin and Athanas Zografi which date to 1744. The monastery was founded in 1282 by Andronikos II Palaiologos and is dedicated to the Byzantine victory over the Angevins in Berat during the Siege of Berat of 1280ñ81. Picture by Manuel Cohen
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