Kanalon Monastery
The Kanalon Monastery ( Greek Ιερά Σταυροπηγιακή Μονή των Κανάλων Iera Stavropigiaki Moni ton Kanalon ) is located in the Olympus massif, in the northeast of the Greek region of Thessaly . It is a Stauro region , so it is directly subordinate to the Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul). In front of the monasteries of Ephraim , Agia Triada, Sparmoy and Agios Dionysios , it is the oldest monastery in the Olymp region .
location
The monastery is on the road that connects Leptokarya with Karya, above the Ziliana River. The distance to Leptokarya is 18 km, the distance (as the crow flies) to the ancient Leibethra is 7 km.
Surname
The name of the Kanalon monastery refers to four torrents in the vicinity, which are known as kanalia ( κανάλια ) for canals.
history
In 1055 the monks Damianos and Joakim chose this place to build a monastery and dedicate it to the birth of the Holy Mother of God. The French archaeologist Léon Heuzey dated the foundation of the monastery to the 10th century. It is around 820 m high and is surrounded by forest. There is no record of the first centuries of existence. An inscription from 1638 is the oldest surviving reference. It was then that the frescoes were painted in the All Saints Chapel. At that time the complex still consisted of the refectory and the catholicon . In 1681 a chapel was added, which was dedicated to Saint Dimitrios. The west wing, in which the cells of the residents are today, was built later.
The heyday of the monastery was in the 17th century. Times were tough in the 19th century. It has been ambushed and looted. In 1881 the Katholikon collapsed for unknown reasons. A first attempt to rebuild the church according to plans by the architect Stamatis failed. She collapsed again. Two years later it was rebuilt on the old foundations according to plans by the architect Efthymios Milios. In 1930 the last monks left the monastery. It was abandoned and began to fall apart. It was not until 2001 that nuns moved into the monastery again.
present
The monastery is permanently inhabited by nuns. The renovation work has largely been completed, the paintings in the chapel of St. Dimitrios are to be restored (as of October 2018).
literature
- Iera Mitropolis Elassonas: Iera Stavropigiaki Moni Genesiou tis Theotokou Kanalon. Ed .: The Metropolitan of Elassona Basileios, Elassona
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Ιερά Μονή Παναγίας Κανάλων - Καρυάς Ολύμπου (Greek)
- ↑ Léon Heuzey: Le mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie: exploration de ces deux régions, avec l étude de leurs antiquités, de leurs populations anciennes et modern, de leur geographie et de leur histoire . Ministère de l'Instruction publique au ministère de d'État, Paris 1860 Online
Coordinates: 40 ° 0 ′ 12 ″ N , 22 ° 27 ′ 44 ″ E