Church of Archangel Michael

The point of reference of the village Taxiarchis, which is located in the forest at mount Cholomontas, is the church of Archangel Michael, patron saint of the settlement, from which it took its name.

During the Turkish Occupation the area was related to the Monastery of Docheiariou at Mount Athos, while there is a tradition according to which the people of the village were workers in the monastery, while there was also a metochi, whose buildings can possibly be recognized among the renovated buildings of the modern settlement.

The church is a more recent building, which was constructed in the period 1970-1977, at the location of an older church, which has been destroyed by the Turks in 1821 and was renovated in 1914. It is a cross-in-square church and the material for its construction is stone from mount Cholomontas. At its interior, at a special canopy they keep the miraculous icon of Archangel Michael, which probably comes from the monastery of Docheiariou. It has silver garment, which bears inscription with the date 1872. At the gynaeconitis of the church there is an ecclesiastical museum with portable icons, sacred vessels and other relics, while they also keep the holy relics of saints.

At the courtyard of the church there is a chapel dedicated to Agios Theodoros, which was perhaps a church of the metochi of the Monastery of Docheiariou, as well as a modern iconostasis of Agios Dimitrios. In the surrounding area there are auxiliary areas, the hall of the “cells”, which was built in 1960, and a stone building of 1916 which used to be a hostel.

The church celebrates twice a year, on the 6th of September and on the 8th of November.