The name means church with a hundred doors. The article says it has only 99, with a hidden hundredth in legend, and offers a theory that the name comes from Katapoliani, meaning church of the lower town. It dates the church to 326 and says it was purportedly founded by Saint Helen, mother of Constantine the Great, on her pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Justinian is credited with initiating construction on the site, without a date.
The oldest features likely predate 391, when Christianity became the Roman Empire's state religion. The complex is Byzantine, with a main chapel surrounded by two more chapels and a baptistery with a cruciform font. The article gives no dimensions or materials.
An earthquake badly damaged it in the 18th century, and it was gradually restored. It is a Marian pilgrimage church in Parikia, second in the Aegean only to the Megalochari on Tinos.
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