The monastery
After the establishment, with reverence and devoutness, of the monastic village in 1918, conquests and confrontations follow.
As soon the heavy black door is pushed to open, we enter the Holy Monastery's courtyard, which is consecrated to
John the Baptist. On the right we see the Icon of the Christening and
of the Fair Forerunner. On the left another icon symbolizes the
sacrifice of a Monk that has abstained from mundanely.
In the indoor yard and to the left, the Church of the Fair Forerunner
and adjacent to it the monks' graves. Up above in the parapets there
are the cells and the hospices. The cave, which Theodoulos, the
anchoret and founder of the Monastery has shaped and lived in, is
vertically chiseled. Into the cell all the hermit's utensils and
necessary utilities are kept intact. A little farther and vis-a-vis to
the cave, the school is also sculpted into the wall as if a catacomb.
Holy icons, books, hagiographies and a skeleton, which by means of an epigraph speaks ironically for the mortals' vanity.
Having left the monastery behind us, to the right and straight ahead a
piney road brings us to the Castle's southern parapets where shame and
brave young lads fought and wrote the atrocious and heroic images of
the revolution. On 21/7/1821 the Turks precipitated from this place
onto the rocks the bodies of Gr. Bistis, the Bishop and his escorts.
And its the very same location wherefrom, three years later, the Greeks
attempted their renown assault, known as Resalto (i.e. the Rush).
Reference: ARAK ADV. Koroni, Lady of the South - Summer Guide |