Greece - Lithochoro, Agios Dionysios Monastery

The (old) monastery Agios Dionysios is located in the Enipeas gorge at an altitude of 850 meters in the Olympus Mountains (PiP5). The monastery was directly subordinated to the patriarch of Constantinople.

The monastery was founded in 1542 by Saint Dionysios. Its name was Agia Triada, which means Holy Trinity. Surrounded by strong high walls and equipped with a watchtower, it looked like a small fortress.
During various conflicts the monastery served as a refuge for civilians, but also for military personnel. In its history, the monastery has been plundered and burned, but also rebuilt several times.

In April 1943 the monastery was attacked by the German army. Assuming that the building could be a refuge for Greek resistance fighters, the Germans first bombed it and then destroyed it with explosives. After the destruction of their monastery in 1943, the monks moved to an annex fifteen kilometers from the old monastery and much lower on the slope of the Olympus. That complex, dating from 1650, grew in the following years into the (new) Dionysios monastery.

The remains of the old monastery and the walls that surrounded it are still visible. The main church has been restored and renovated. Its location and the mixtures of ruins and the renovated katholikon (= main church of the monastery) made it for me a special and very charming site.