{"id":22607,"date":"2026-09-30T00:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/lost-tarpon-springs-icon-found-in-an-aegina-church-greek-city-times\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T00:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T00:48:16","slug":"lost-tarpon-springs-icon-found-in-an-aegina-church-greek-city-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/lost-tarpon-springs-icon-found-in-an-aegina-church-greek-city-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost Tarpon Springs Icon Found in an Aegina Church \u2013 Greek City Times"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

A painting that left Florida more than a century ago is hanging in a church on Aegina.<\/h3>\n

Immigrants from Aegina gave the work \u2014 a religious icon \u2014 to St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church<\/a> in Tarpon Springs in 1910<\/strong>. The Gulf Coast town was, and is, a centre of Greek sponge-diving families. The church is now a cathedral.<\/p>\n

A fire damaged the piece. In 1923<\/strong> it went back to Greece for restoration. It never returned.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n

Mayor John Koulianos flew to Greece in July to look for it and to settle a twin-city deal between Tarpon Springs and Aegina. He says he did both. The mayor of Aegina rang a priest who knew where the painting was. Koulianos found it on the wall of a local church.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He told Fox 13 Tampa Bay it is about the size of a movie poster \u2014 \u201ca little bit too big to put in a suitcase.\u201d He joked that grabbing it was not an option.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Local officials are now talking to church leaders about bringing it home. The mayor\u2019s post dates the work to the Byzantine period; that claim sits with the icon\u2019s keepers, not a published lab date.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

Source: Mayor John Koulianos \/<\/em><\/p>\n