​Kaisariani Monastery is a located Mount Hymettos on the outskirts of Athens. Its exquisitely built late eleventh-century katholikon has all of the essential characteristics of contemporary Athenian churches. Measuring only 8 b 13 m in plan, it has a cross-in-square plan, with an eastern extension for the accommodation of the sanctuary. Its domed narthex and the southern lateral chapel are later additions. Its walls, built of carefully cut ashlars, display one of the finest examples of cloisonne construction. Its dome, elevated on an octagonal drum, reveals a process of simplification: the flat drum faces lack corner colonnettes, and its eaves have lost the rippled character typical of earlier churches in favor of a flat horizontal cornice. The building is marked by another curiosity. The north cross arm is accentuated by strongly projecting pilasters that carry a large blind arch topped by a triangular gable. These frame a large entrance door and a two-light window above it, and the entire arrangement reflects the spatial disposition of the interior at this point. The remarkable thing about this solution is that nowhere else on the facades was any attempt made to reveal a similar relationship with the interior space. Thus, the large arch on the north side of the church must be viewed in a different light. Its role was evidently symbolic, perhaps accentuating the principal entrance into the church for the monks, or some other significant function. In all other respects they adhered to the simple planar approach to the exterior treatment typical of Athenian churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.