Above the public garden of Parikia, capital of Paros, stands the Church of Panagia Ekatontapiliani, one of the oldest monuments of its kind in Greece and the most historically significant church in the Aegean islands. Its name, meaning 'Church of the Hundred Doors,' also gives rise to the alternate title Panagia Katapoliani Church. The complex dates in its core to the early Byzantine centuries and comprises a cross-shaped domed church, two side chapels, and a baptistery with a cruciform immersion font, all built in the white marble for which Paros was celebrated in antiquity. Tradition connects its foundation to Saint Helena, mother of Constantine, and a twentieth-century restoration stripped away later additions to reveal the early fabric.
