Elaborate fretwork decoration surrounds the two registers, in which arches supported on columns frame the Annunciation and the prophets David and Solomon above and the three hierarchs, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, and John Chrysostom, and St Stephen the protomartyr below. In the first carved register, the motif is a vase of flowers, in the second seraphim, and in the third confronted lions, serpents and birds. The central strip between the doors is decorated with a vegetal ornament and topped with a relief lion's head. Bema doors were decorated with the Annunciation from the 12th century onwards. The symbolic meaning of the scene links the Annunciation with the gates of the sanctuary, because the Virgin Mary is described as the Gate of Paradise and as the gateway of Christ's incarnation.
