Holy Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary Vitouma

On the eastern slopes of Mount Koziakas and at an altitude of 540 meters is the women’s monastery of the Holy Monastery of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary of Vitouma. According to sources, it was founded in 1161 at the expense of Konstantinos Tarchaniotis and his wife Zoe. From this monastery today, only the katholicon and a chapel survive, around which a monastery with new buildings has developed in recent years.

The monastery, after its conversion into a women’s monastery (1952), has experienced great prosperity. The nickname Vitouma, according to oral tradition, comes from a Byzantine official named Vitoumas, who came from Constantinople and lived in this place. Behind the sacred step of the catholicon is the cave where, according to legend, the many-times lost icon of the Virgin Mary of Kalampakiotissa was found, in whose honor the monastery was built, taking these events as a message from the Virgin Mary.

Entering the monastery’s enclosure, south of the gate, one encounters the chapel dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, built in 1559. In the center of the enclosure is the catholicon of the monastery, which until the 18th century was a parish church.

The catholicon, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, built in 1600, is a three[1]aisled basilica with a raised central aisle and a later (1662) narthex on its western side. The painted decoration and the remarkable wood-carved iconostasis of the catholicon date back to 1600.