Nea Moni of Chios

Nea Moni, the "New Monastery", sits on Provateio mountain in the interior of Chios, and it holds one of the three great sets of eleventh-century mosaics in Greece, alongside Hosios Loukas and Daphni. It was founded by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Empress Zoe. Local tradition holds that three hermits found an icon of the Virgin hanging in a myrtle bush here, and later visited Constantine in exile on Lesbos to tell him he would become emperor; when he took the throne in 1042 he kept his promise to build them a church. The katholikon was consecrated in 1049, and the complex was complete by 1055.

Imperial privileges made the monastery rich. By around 1300 its estates covered a third of the island and hundreds of monks belonged to it, and it kept considerable autonomy under the Genoese and Ottomans. The disaster came in April 1822, during the Greek War of Independence, when Ottoman forces sacked Chios: some 2,000 people sheltered in the monastery, the troops stormed it, killed many of them and set fire to the church. An earthquake in 1881 brought down the dome. Since 1952 the monastery has been a convent, with only a handful of nuns.

The katholikon is the reason to come. It follows an octagonal plan, a local type found on Chios and Cyprus, and its mosaics are ranked among the finest works of the so-called Macedonian Renaissance of Byzantine art; among the scenes that survive is the Arrest of Christ. Parts of the building were rebuilt after 1822 and 1881, so what the visitor sees is an eleventh-century interior inside a partly restored shell.

Around the church lie the ruined cells, the refectory, a large underground cistern, the chapel of St Luke, a defensive tower once used as a library, and a small museum opened in 1992. The walled complex covers some 17,000 square metres, and the approach road climbs through the mountains with views across the sea towards the coast of Asia Minor. It is still a convent.

Getting there

The monastery is in the interior of Chios, about 7 km from Chios town in a straight line and roughly 11 to 15 km by a winding mountain road. Chios Island National Airport (JKH) is about 8 km away, with flights from Athens. There is no reliable public transport to the monastery; a rental car or taxi from Chios town is the practical way to get there, with the drive taking about 15 to 30 minutes.