Monastery of Agios Vissarionas Dousiko

On the wooded eastern slope of mount Koziakas, near the town of Pyli, at a strategic location with a view towards the plains of Thessaly, is located the Monastery of Agios Vissarionas Dousiko, dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ. Its name comes from the nearby village of Dousiko, which nowadays is called Agios Vissarion.

The monastery was founded in the period 1527-1535 over the ruin of an older Byzantine monastery of the 13^th-14th century. Its founder is Agios Vissarion, Metropolitan of Larissa, with the help of his brother, Ignatius, bishop of Kappoua and Fanari. Later, in 1557, the metropolitan of Larissa Neophytus, nephew of Agios Vissariona, founded the present day catholicon at the location of the older one. The monastery developed into a great intellectual center and had an excellent library and a workshop for copying codices. During its long history it suffered a lot of plunders and destructions. In 1771 it was plundered by the Turco-Albanians and in 1823 its monks were slaughtered by the Turco-Albanians. In modern times, in 1943, it was bombed by the Italians and later by the Germans. 

The catholicon of the monastery is a complex, four-columned, cross-in-square church with a dome and belongs to the so-called “Athonite” triconch type. Characteristic of this type is that apart from the eastern semi-circular conch of the altar area, there are semi-circular conches on the two side walls, which are called “choirs”, because there stand the chanters. On the western there is a spacious narthex, which is called “liti” in monasteries, and an exonarthex. At its interior the church is richly decorated with icons, the brilliant example of the “Cretan School” of painting of the 16th century. The wall paintings date from 1557 and are attributed to the important painter Tzortzis or Zorzis. The wooden-carved screen is the work of craftsmen from Epirus, it was constructed in 1767 was gold-plated in 1813The monastery also has, among others, the chapels of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary with wall paintings from 1675, of Timios Prodromos with wall paintings from 1693, and of All Saints with wall paintings from 1746.

It is a men’s monastery and celebrates on the 6th of August (Transfiguration of Christ) and the 15th of September (Agios Vissarionas Day). Women are not allowed in the monastery, and they have built a chapel for them outside the monastery.