High on a green plateau of Mount Parnon, at about 1,000 metres and 25 km from Sparta, near Tsintzina and Vassaras, stands one of the oldest monasteries of Laconia, founded in 881. Its church of 1621 is decorated with more than a hundred wall paintings by the Kakavas family of painters from Nafplio, and has a carved wooden iconostasis of 1711.
The monastery was destroyed and rebuilt several times – by Venetians and Ottomans in 1685, by Ibrahim in 1826 and looted in 1943. It ran a secret school until independence, and six of its monks fought in 1821. Feast days are 1 July and 1 November.