Panagia Monastery (Katholikon)
| Department | Archive |
|---|---|
| Collection | Byzantine Research Fund |
| Reference No. | BRF/02/01/13/029 |
| Level | Item |
| Place |
Isova Monastery |
| Dates | 1905-1909 |
| Donor/Creator |
Traquair, Mr Ramsay |
| Scope and Content | West façade. Further annotation in pencil survives at the back of the photograph. |
| Further information | On the western bank of the Alpheios river close to the present-day village of Trupiti (Vizipardi) stand the ruins of the Benedictine monastery of Panagia of Isova. The monastery was founded by William de Villehardouin in the first quarter of the 13th c. Only the katholikon and the chapel of Hagios Nikolaos survive to date. The katholikon is a one-aisled wooden roofed basilica terminating in a polygonal vaulted choir lighted by tracery windows. The large western gable, which is pierced by three lancet windows, is the best preserved part of the church. At the south-western angle are two cross buttresses with stringcourses and sloping gabled heads. The windows on the north side, which are much better preserved than those on the south, are single lancets with metal grilles for which the holes are still visible. In the interior at each side of each end there was a niche covered by a moulded arch. The church possibly had one door on the south side and two doors on the north side. The arrangement and the architecture of the building in general are purely Gothic, of the type which should be expected in the first decades of the 13th c. There is no trace in ornament or in masonry of any Byzantine influence. |