Templon

In Byzantine churches, the templon was the screen separating the nave from the sanctuary. Originally, the templon was a low parapet, which either stood at a right angle to the nave or projected into the nave in the form of the letter _. The enclosure had entrances on three sides and was sometimesproceeded by a four-column porch. These barriers were supported by a molded stylobate and piers or colonnettes, which carried the templon beam or epistyle. By the Middle Byzantine period, icons were usually set into the intercolumnar spaces and placed on the epistyle, making the sanctuary less and less visible to the congregation. BLR

COMPARANDA
Templon (Nerezi, Church of St. Panteleemon)
Fragment of a panel from a templon screen (Kavala, Greece, Archaeological Museum)
Iconostasis panel with Three Apostles (Athens, Byzantine Museum)

BIBLIOGRAPHY
"Templon." Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Ed. Alexander Kazhdan. 3 vols. New York: Oxford University Press. 2023.