Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi (Monastery of Kokkini Petra)

At a plateau filled with oak trees, near the road that leads from Metsovo to Anthochori, at the location Kokkino LIthari, is the Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi. The locals call it the Monastery of Kokkini Petra (Red Stone), due to the steep huge red rocks on its eastern side, where in the past there were hermitages.

Possible it was founded in the 17th century and in 1732 it was renovated by Stergios Dafos, as mentioned in the founding inscription. Due to its location near the central road was a stop for the caravans that travelled from Epirus to Thessaly and the Balkans. In 1820 it was destroyed by Ottoman troops that moved towards Ioannina against Ali Pasha, and its monks were slaughtered. It was abandoned approximately a century later, in 1927, and has not operated since.

The monastery, which has been renovated completely, is surrounded on both sides by a corner complex with auxiliary areas and cells. At its centre stands the catholicon, built with stones, as all the buildings of the area, and roofed with slates. Architecturally it belongs to a variation of the Athonite type, in other words it is a cross-in-square church with a dome and has two conches, one in each side wall. At its entrance a roofed verandah is shaped, while the sanctuary ends externally at a five-sided arch, over which inside a conch the Zoodochos Pigi is depicted, surrounded by the figures of the archangels and four walled-in plates.

Internally the church is decorated with icons. The older ones, in 1765, cover the sanctuary area and a large part of the main church, while the rest date from 1844. Remarkable are the wooden carved screen, which was initially built in the 17th century but was destroyed by fire in 1840 and all of its parts that survived have been incorporated in the new one, of the 19th century. At the monastery they have portable icons of the 18th-20th century, and a lot of nooks from the 18th-19th century.

It celebrates on the day of Zoodochos Pigi (Life Giving Spring), on Bright Friday.