⇠ Karyes 15km (3 hours)
The Monastery Xenophontos is built in the middle of the western side of Athos peninsula by the coast. Agios Xenophon founded it in the 10th century.
The monastery is dedicated to Agios Georgios and celebrates on the 23rd of April / 6th of May. Like all the other monasteries it suffered a lot of raids by pirates, as well as fires, so it lost a lot of valuable treasures.
The present “catholicon” was built early in the 19th century (1809-1819). It is extremely big with a marvelous marble iconostasis. However, the first “catholicon” from the 10th century, with wall paintings from the 16th and 17th centuries is still preserved. Most of the wall paintings were made by the Cretan painter Antonios.
In the monastery there are a lot of chapels, the oldest of which is the chapel dedicated to Agios Dimitrios, (Saint Demeter) with a wooden impressive iconostasis from the 17th century. The wall paintings of the Refectory were made in the 16th century.
The bell-tower was built in 1814, and the “phiale” in 1908. Finally, the library includes 300 handwritten and 4.000 printed books. Two mosaic icons of Agios Georgios and Agios Dimitrios, pieces of Holy Wood, relics of Saints, the icon of Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, gold-embroidered vestments and holy vessels constitute the valuable heirlooms of the monastery.
T +30 23770 23249, 23630
