Part of the Tsoukas monastery, it is built in a cave that opens into a steep slope, above the tributary of the Arachthos called Kalarrytiko. It dates from at least 1349 and acquired its current form at the end of the 17th – beginning of the 18th century.

The access to the monastery is provided via a path copened into the bedrock. The necessary utilitarian spaces were built on two levels in the hollow of the bedrock.

The Catholic, a small single-naved church with narthex, is built in an elongated cave and has a rich mural decoration inside, that goes back to the 18th century. From the pronaos begins an entrance to a cave 240m long and 9m high, which was once an underground riverbed. The complex includes a two-story wing of cells, a passageway with a drawbridge, and an auxiliary building in the outer enclosure.

Its location, as well as the limited access to it, made the monastery inaccessible, and also one of the few that were not destroyed by marauding raids.

It is dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, but it is celebrated on Easter Friday, on the feast of the Life-giving Spring, with the participation of many pilgrims.

Dimitra Papaioannou