Agios Nikolaos (Lagos)
| Agios Nikolaos | ||
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| Waters | Lagos Lagoon, Aegean Sea | |
| Geographical location | 41 ° 0 ′ 27.5 " N , 25 ° 8 ′ 39.7" E | |
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| length | 60 m | |
| width | 40 m | |
| surface | 0.24 ha | |
| Highest elevation | 0 m | |
Agios Nikolaos ( Greek Άγιος Νικόλαος , also Ai Nikola Αϊ Νικόλα) is the name of a small island and the monastery lying on it in the lagoon of Lagos in the Greek region of East Macedonia and Thrace . Agios Nikolaos is the northernmost island in Greece. Administratively it belongs to the municipality of Avdira .
The monastery is a metochie (branch monastery) of the Vatopedi monastery on the Athos peninsula and is inhabited and managed by a few monks. It is connected to the mainland to the north by an approximately 130-meter-long walkway and can be reached via a parking lot on Autobahn 2, which runs 200 m to the north .
There are two founding legends about the monastery: One tells of a Turkish Bey who, after the healing of his sick daughter by a hermit, gave the area to the Vatopedi monastery. According to an older tradition, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nektarios, consecrated the monastery in the presence of the Eastern Roman emperor Arcadius after he escaped a shipwreck through the intercession of Mary.
The ownership claims of the Vatopedi Monastery also include the entire Vistonida Lake to the north , which plays a role in the real estate scandal surrounding the business relations of the Vatopedi Monastery to the Greek state.
80 m south of the monastery island is another tiny islet with a chapel of the Mother of God Pantanassa, which contains a replica of the icon of Mary of the same name from the monastery of Vatopedi and is connected to the monastery island via another footbridge.
Web links
- Entry to the monastery on monastiria.gr (Greek)