Mega Spilaio Monastery

Mega Spilaio, the great cave, is built against and partly inside an overhanging cliff at about 940 metres, its eight storeys of masonry rising flat against the rock. Tradition dates its foundation to the fourth century, which would make it among the oldest monasteries in Greece, and its treasure is an icon of the Virgin modelled in wax and mastic rather than painted, attributed by tradition to the evangelist Luke and blackened with age. Fire has repeatedly destroyed the buildings, most recently in 1934, so what stands is largely twentieth-century work over ancient foundations, with the cave chapel behind. A small museum holds manuscripts, vestments and reliquaries. The approach road runs through the Vouraikos gorge country, and the monastery balconies look straight down the valley.

History

The cave, in a sheer cliff where Mount Chelmos drops to the Vouraikos gorge some 11 kilometres from Kalavryta, was known in antiquity, and Pausanias says the daughters of Proetus took refuge in it. By tradition the monastery was founded in 362 by the brothers Symeon and Theodore of Thessaloniki, who with the shepherdess Euphrosyne found in the cave an icon of the Virgin attributed to St Luke; it rose to prominence from about 1354 as the residence of the Orthodox Metropolitan of Patras while the city was in Latin hands. Several monks joined the Filiki Etaireia and fought in the War of Independence, and after a fire destroyed the main church in 1934 a new one was built in 1937 (Wikipedia, Mega Spilaio).

What you'll find

• The cliff facade - eight storeys built flat against an overhanging rock.
• The cave chapel - the original sanctuary inside the cliff.
• The wax and mastic icon - the monastery's famously dark Virgin.
• The treasury museum - manuscripts, silver and vestments.

When to go

Spring and autumn for the drive and the gorge views; the monastery closes for a long midday break and observes services. Winter snow can make the road difficult.

Things to know

A strict dress code applies, covered shoulders and legs, and photography inside is not allowed. Most of the fabric is modern reconstruction after fires. Visits are short; the setting and the icon are the reasons to come.

Nearby

The Vouraikos gorge rack railway runs below at Zachlorou; Kalavryta and the Cave of the Lakes are south.

Key facts