Saint Ignatios Monastery description and photos - Greece: Lesvos Island (Topic)

Saint Ignatios Monastery description and photos - Greece: Lesvos Island. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The name in English is Saint Ignatios Monastery.

Photo and description

The Monastery of Saint Ignatius, or the Monastery of Limonos, is an active male monastery on the island of Lesvos. The monastery is located about 14 km north-west of the town of Kalloni in the middle of a picturesque meadow, because of which the name "limonos", which is translated from Greek as "meadow", was actually stuck behind it. It is the largest monastery and one of the most important religious centers of the island.

The holy monastery was founded as the Monastery of the Archangel Michael in 1526 by Saint Ignatius on the ruins of an old Byzantine monastery, abandoned in 1462, after the troops of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II captured the island of Lesvos. On the initiative of St. Ignatius, the school "Leimonias" was founded at the monastery and soon the holy monastery turned not only into a spiritual one, but also the educational center of the island (the institution operated until 1923).

The monastery's catholicon - an impressive three-nave basilica was built in 1526. Despite the fact that the structure has undergone a number of changes in its history, the structure founded dates back to the 16th century. Old wall paintings of the 16-17th centuries have also been well preserved to this day. Of course, for women, access to the monastery's catholicon is strictly prohibited, and the courtyard can only be entered on the day of St. Ignatius on October 14.

The monastery of St. Ignatius has an impressive collection of artifacts - icons, vestments of clergymen, church utensils, coins , various ethnographic objects and much more. The library of the monastery contains about 5000 volumes,

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Topic: Saint Ignatios Monastery description and photos - Greece: Lesvos Island.