Holy Monastery of Saint Ioannis Prodromos of Karea

On the western slope of Ymittos, near the ancient “”Kara”” quarries, the Monastery of Agios Ioannis Kareas is located, just a few hundred meters away from the settlement of the same name. The founding date of the monastery is unknown. The first indirect reference to it can be found in the 11th or 12th century, in a “”practice”” recording the assets of a large monastery, however this dating does not seem to be confirmed by the architectural remains and the morphology of the current buildings.

In the post-Byzantine times, the monastery was patriarchal, and in the 17th century, the medical philosopher Petros Papastamatis (Petrakis) from Dimitsana, later know as monk Parthenios, became a monk here. At the beginning of the 19th century, the monastery was probably abandoned. Since 1971 it has been functioning as a women’s monastery. None of the buildings has survived from the Byzantine complex. The katholikon belongs to the architectural style of cruciform inscribed church with a simple octagonal dome and on its eastern side three three-sided arches are formed externally. Ancient material has also been used for the construction of the walls of the temple. Inside, there is the sculpted marble iconostasis from the years 1985-1986 and imitates the icons of the Byzantine years.