Monastery of Koroni (Panagia Theotokos)

At a beautiful, wooded location of Agrafa, near Lake Plastiras, is located the Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. They used to call it “Kriera Pigi” (Cold Water Spring), but from the beginning of the 18th αιώνα it became known as the Monastery of Koroni, possibly due to its location, which dominates at its height and crowns the area like a “corona”, a crown.

According to tradition, it was founded in 1123, when an icon of the Virgin Mary was found at the area. It was recognized as a stauropegic monastery, but in the following centuries if fell into decline and was destroyed. It was reconstructed in the beginning of the 16th century by Andreas Bounos, a local nobleman who is also depicted in the icon of the catholicon. During the period of the Turkish occupation, the monastery maintained its privileges and hosted a school, where important people taught. In the years of the German occupation it found itself in the centre of the fighting and it was destroyed by the German troops in 1943. It was reconstructed and renovated after the liberation and today is a men’s monastery. Its history is related to Agios Seraphim, Archbishop of Fanarion and Neochorion, who took the monastic vows here in around 1580 and his holy skull is kept at the monastery.

From the complex of the 16th century survive the catholicon and a wing of cells. The catholicon follows the Athonite type of churches, in other words it is a cross-in-square church with three conches and a dome supported by four columns. Its interior is richly decorated with icons from 1587, works of monk Daniel, who follows the Cretan School of painting. Also remarkable is the wooden carved screen of the 18th century, made from folk artists, one of the best of the area, with icons from the 16th and the 18th century. North of the church is annexed the chapel of Timios Prodromos (St John the Baptist) from the beginning of the 18th century. Its wall paintings, the work of an unknown folk painter, were made in 1739, with the funding of a certain Apostolakis from Vragiana.

The monastery celebrates on the 8th of September (Nativity of the Virgin Mary) and on the 4th of December (Agios Serafim).