Corridor: Via Egnatia, Eastern Trans-Balkan Road
Country: Greece, Rodopi
Type: Christian religious centre
Epoch: Middle Ages
Theme: Christian Monasteries
World Heritage:

The monastery, which constituted the central monastery with separate cells for the monks scattered in the surrounding mountainous and inaccessible area, was established in the 9th or 10th century by monks and was built over an earlier basilica with materials of its ruins. This monastic village must be related to the revival and reorganisation of Byzantine urban centres during the 9th and 10th century. The monastery, which prospered in the 12th century, comprises of two wings of quarters. The courtyard, which occupies the central aisle if the old basilica, lies between the two wings. In its eastern part lies the Catholicon. The walls of the basilica constituted the precinct and today they are preserved almost in full height.
The monastery was inhabited until the 13th century, when the monks obviously abandoned it because of the lack of safety.

Hellenic ministry of culture