Hosios Lukas Monastery

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The monastery Hosios Lukas also monastery Osios Loukas ( Greek Μονή Οσίου Λουκά Moní Osíou Louká , German 'Monastery of Blessed Luke' ) or Lukaskloster is next to Daphni and Nea Moni one of the three most important Byzantine monasteries in Greece . It is located in Boeotia in the Central Greece region about 20 km east-southeast of Delphi . Since 1990 it belongs to the list of World Heritage of UNESCO .

The monastery of Hosios Lukas
Part of the monastery complex

history

In the 10th century, from established Aegina originating hermit Lukas von Steiris a hermitage on the site of the present monastery. Here he could practice his religion safely from the Slavs who immigrated to central Greece and the Saracens who haunted the Greek coasts. A church consecrated to St. Barbara was probably built during his lifetime and forms the core of today's Panagia Church. According to a legend, Luke is said to have possessed prophetic gifts and predicted the reconquest of Crete as early as 941 . When this actually happened twenty years later after the death of Luke, the monastery began to attract pilgrims and was expanded accordingly. The core of the monastery, which was built with financial help from Byzantium, has been preserved to this day.

investment

View of the east part of the two monastery churches

The core of the monastery complex are two connected churches, the Katholikon and the Panagia Church. The old dining room has also been preserved and now serves as a museum. The bell tower, one of four originally, was restored in 1863.

The Katholikon, the main church consecrated to Luke from 1011, was a new type of church at the time, which differs from both a basilica and the domed churches of earlier centuries. The long rectangular building is a cross-domed church . The simple outer walls are made of bricks and antique stone blocks that may have been brought here from Delphi. Parts of the outer walls could originally have been plastered or clad. The interior clearly stands out from the roughly designed exterior. The church is of one with frescoes configured dome spans having a diameter of 9 meters. The mosaics from the 11th century are remarkable . In terms of overall preservation, the pictorial equipment is unique in Greece. Only the mosaics of the main dome were lost in a collapse in the 16th or 17th century and were replaced by corresponding frescoes - Pantocrator, Our Lady, John the Baptist and Archangel.

Below the Katholikon is one with frescoes configured crypt originally housed the grave of Luke. This is now in the upper church.

The smaller and older Panagia Church is directly connected to the Katholikon by a colonnade.

The former refectory , which today houses a museum, the bell tower and the monks' living quarters are grouped around the two churches .

literature

  • Lambert Schneider , Christoph Höcker : Greek mainland. Antiquity and Byzantium, Islam and Classicism between the Corinthian Gulf and northern Greek mountains (= DuMont Art Travel Guide ). 5th edition. Dumont Reiseverlag, Ostfildern 2011, ISBN 978-3-7701-2936-2 , p. 223 ff.
  • Ernst Diez , Otto Demus : Byzantine mosaics in Greece, Hosios Lucas & Daphni. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA 1931.

Web links

Commons : Hosios Lukas Monastery  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 38 ° 23 ′ 41.1 ″  N , 22 ° 44 ′ 47.7 ″  E