Μonastery of Pamegiston Taxiarchon

Inside a beautiful, dense forest on the foothills of mount Klokos, approximately 15km far from Aigio, is where the monastery of Pamegiston Taxiarchon is built, one of the most important monasteries of the Peloponnese.

Its history is related to the life of osios Leontios, who was as ascetic in the area in the end of the 14th – beginning of the 15th century and founded the first monastery at the location “Palaiomonastiro”, where there was a church of Archangel Michael, with the support of his uncles, Thomas and Demetrios Palaiologos, despots of Mystra. The monastery was destroyed by the Turks twice, in 1500 and in 1620. After the first destruction it was renovated, while after the second one it was transferred in the present day location. It was destroyed by the Turci-Albanians in 1772, and was reconstructed ten years later by the very few monks that have survived. In the revolution of 1821 it participated actively in the fight, provided money and was used as a hospital and a food and ammunition storage. In the years after the liberation it flourished greatly and had great intellectual work, with the operation of a school and a library. Today it is a men’s monastery and it is well-known for the production of the famous “rodozachari”, a special sweet preserve, made from rose petals.

The complex has four sides and is surrounded by two-storey cell buildings that create a tall precinct. At the centre of the yard is the catholicon, a cross-in-square church with an octagonal dome supported by four columns. Its masonry is carefully done and its interior has wall paintings of 1895 and the elaborate gold-plated, wooden-carved screen, while its windows are decorated with marble works. On the corner of the precinct what stands out is the three-storey tower, from the same period as the catholicon, with the church of Agia Triada at its basement. The monastery has excellent library, relics of saints, and the skull of osios Leontios. One of its most important treasures is ”Achranta Pathi”, a true treasure of faith, a donation by the Palaeologans of Mystra to the founder of the Monastery Osios Leontios.

The monastery celebrates on the 8th of November and on the 11th of December (memory of Osios Leontios).