connected with the antiquarian Latin archbishop of Corinth, William de Meerbeke.

connected with the antiquarian Latin archbishop of Corinth, William de Meerbeke.

Domed, cross-in-square church of the composite four-column type, with a narthex and porches. The wall masonry is pseudo-isodomic in the lower section and "cloisonné" in the upper part. The facades are decorated with a variety of brick ornaments. The church was built on a stone crepis and dates to the end of the 12th or the 13th century. The interior is decorated with Byzantine wall paintings. There is no reference to the history of the monument, which is dated only on the basis of the excavation data and its architectural form. It was probably connected with the antiquarian Latin archbishop of Corinth, William de Meerbeke. William was Flemish, born about 1215, or 1230, in the province of Brabant, (probably) in Moerbeke, now a small town in the flat farmland of central Belgium. He joined the Dominican order at Louvain or Ghent. As an exceptional young scholar, he was sent to continue his studies in Paris and Cologne. He studied Greek and Arabic.  Moerbeke's primary reputation is for having acquired and translated various Greek manuscripts, especially Aristotle, for the use of Thomas Aquinas. He was appointed Archbishop of Corinth and so is next associated with this church.  The name of Merbaka has long been thought to have come from his name. Was this church intended as a burial church? Not sufficient archaeological data has been made available and we do not even know whether he wanted to be buried in the Argolid.

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