The Kanalon Monastery (), formally the Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos of Kanalon (), is a

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

in the north-east of the Greek region of

Thessaly Thessaly ( ; ; ancient Aeolic Greek#Thessalian, Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic regions of Greece, geographic and modern administrative regions of Greece, administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient Thessaly, a ...

. Beside the monasteries of Agios Dionysios and Agia Triada, Sparmos it is one of the monasteries located at Mount Olympus.

Location and name

The convent is located east of Karya, on the road connecting it with Leptokarya, above the river Ziliana. The distance to Leptokarya is about 18 km, the distance (air line) to the ancient

Leivithra Leibethra or Libethra, in the modern pronunciation Leivithra (), was an ancient Macedonian city at the foot of Mount Olympus, near the present settlement of Skotina. Archaeologists have discovered tombs there from the late Bronze Age (13th–12t ...

is about 7 km. It is located at an altitude of 820 m and is surrounded by forest. The name of the monastery refers to four wild brooks in the vicinity, called ''kanalia'' (κανάλια, "channels"), which combined to form the Ziliana river.

History

According to tradition, the monastery was founded in 1055 by the monks Damian and Joachim, who dedicated it to the birth of the

Holy Mother of God ''Theotokos'' (Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are or (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer ...

(''Theotokos''). The 19th-century French traveller Léon Heuzey, on the other hand, dated the foundation of the monastery to the ninth century. The first written record, however, is a 1638 inscription on the painting of

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

es for the chapel dedicated to All Saints. At that time, the complex consisted of the refectory and the

katholikon A ''katholikon'' or catholicon () or ''sobor'' () refers to one of three things in the Eastern Orthodox Church: * The cathedral of a diocese. * The major Church (building), church building (temple) of a monastery corresponding to a conventual ...

. In 1681, a chapel dedicated to Saint Demetrios was added. The western wing, which now houses the cells of the inhabitants, was built later. The monastery flourished in the 17th century, when large-scale restoration and decoration work took place in the complex. During the 19th century, the complex was raided and suffered considerable devastation. In 1881 the ''katholikon'' collapsed for unknown reasons, two years later it was rebuilt on the old foundations.Metropolis of Elassona, ''Ιερά Μονή Κανάλων'', p. 13 Despite its

stauropegic A stauropegion, also spelled stavropegion (from , in turn from σταυρός ''stauros'' "cross" and πήγνυμι ''pegnumi'' "to affirm"), is a monastery or a parish which depends directly on the Primate (bishop), primate or on the Holy Sy ...

status, it was finally abandoned in 1930. The monastery is operating again as a female convent since 2001. , the renovation work has been largely completed and the paintings in the chapel of Saint Demetrios are to be restored.

Buildings

Parts of the original complex survive: the high fortified wall surrounding it, the refectory in the northern part, a handful of cells on the northeaster side, the ''katholikon'', and the chapel of Saint Demetrios. The ''katholikon'' is a three-aisled

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

topped by a dome. It had a separate upper gallery for women (''gynaikonites''). It was built in 1833, collapsed in 1881, and rebuilt in 1883 to the designs of the architect Efthymios Milios from Pentalofos. Its masonry is of locally quarried stone and marble. The chapel of Saint Demetrios is a small, single-room building that was built in 1684 and painted in 1689–1696. The small cemetery chapel dedicated to All Saints is the oldest building, with frescoes dating to 1638. The refectory is an elongated building with three apses on its eastern end, which are also decorated with frescoes.

References

{{reflist Christian monasteries established in the 1050s Greek Orthodox monasteries in Greece Monasteries in Thessaly Buildings and structures in Pieria (regional unit) Mount Olympus 1055 establishments in Europe