Medieval monastery built over early Christian ruins & an ancient shrine to the goddess Aphrodite.
The monastery was probably established in Byzantine times in ca. 1100, which is the date of construction of the surviving church (the monastery’s katholikon). Nevertheless, the site has a far longer history as a cult center: in Antiquity, it was probably a site dedicated to Aphrodite, before being taken over by Christians in the 5th/6th centuries. Remains of a large early Christian basilica lie to the west, over which a smaller church was built in the 10th/11th centuries.
The monastery is mentioned by Pope Innocent III after the Fourth Crusade, but seems to have remained in Greek Orthodox hands, unlike other churches and monasteries that were taken over by Latin (Roman Catholic) clergy. A further, now ruined single-aisled church, was built to the southwest during the Frankish period.When, in 1458, the Turks occupied Attica, Sultan Mehmed II went to the monastery and, according to Jacob Spon (1675), a French doctor from Lyon, that is where he was given the key to the city.
Own or work here?