Kanalon Monastery

The Kanalon convent

The Kanalon Monastery (Greek: Ιερά Σταυροπηγιακή Μονή των Κανάλων, Iera Stavropigiaki Moni ton Kanalon) is a Greek Orthodox convent in the north-east of the Greek region of Thessaly. Beside the monasteries Agios Dionysios and Agia Triada, Sparmos it is one of the monasteries located at Mount Olympus. It is a stauropegic monastery, subordinated directly to the Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul).

Location

The convent is located at the road connecting Leptokarya with Karya, above the river Ziliana. The distance to Leptokarya is about 18 km, the distance (air line) to the ancient Leivithra is about 7 km.

Name

The name of the monastery refers to four wild brooks in the vicinity, which are called kanalia (κανάλια, "channels").[1]

History

Paintings in the Chapel from 1638

In 1055 the monks Damianos and Joachim chose this place to build a monastery and dedicate it to the birth of the Holy Mother of God. The French archaeologist Léon Heuzey in the other hand dated the foundation of the monastery to the ninth century.[2] It is located at an altitude of 820 m and is surrounded by forest. There are no records of the first centuries of its existence, and an inscription from the year 1638 is the oldest surviving reference to the monastery. At that time the frescos were painted in the Chapel of All Saints. At that time, the complex consisted of the refectory and the katholikon. In 1681, a chapel dedicated to Saint Demetrios was added. The western wing, which now houses the cells of the inhabitants, was built later.

The monastery flourished in the 17th century. In the nineteenth century, it had a difficult time. It was attacked and plundered. In 1881 the katholikon collapsed for unknown reasons. A first attempt to rebuild the church according to plans by architect Stamatis failed. The church collapsed again. Two years later it was rebuilt according to the plans of the architect Efthymios Milios on the old foundations. In 1930, the last monks left the monastery. It was abandoned and began to disintegrate. It was in 2001 that the monastery was once again occupied by nuns.

Present

The monastery is permanently inhabited by nuns. The renovation work has been largely completed and the paintings in the chapel of Saint Dimitrios are to be restored (as of July 2017).

Literature

  • Iera Mitropolis Elassonas: Iera Stavropigiaki Moni Genesiou tis Theotokou Kanalon. Publisher: The Metropolitan of Elassona: Basileios, Elassona

References

  1. ↑ "Monastery Kanalon".
  2. ↑ Léon Heuzey: Le mont Olympe et l'Acarnanie: exploration de ces deux régions, avec l étude de leurs antiquités, de leurs populations anciennes et modernes, de leur géographie et de leur histoire. Ministère de l'Instruction publique au ministère de d'État, Paris 1860 Online

Coordinates: 40°00′12″N 22°27′44″E / 40.0033°N 22.4621°E / 40.0033; 22.4621

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