Eikonistria Monastery

The Monastery of Panagia Iconistra can be found on the most pine-covered area in the west part of Skiathos, 13 kilometres off the town, at 200 meters altitude. It is on the road leading to Mikros Aselinos, one of the northwest coasts of the island. The Monastery of Iconistra is the holiest part of the island since it was there that the miraculous Icon of Panagia was found in 1650. The locals call the Monastery “Kounistra” (the moving one), as the Icon of Panagia was found by hieromonk Symeon dangling off a pine branch. Panagia Iconistra is the patron-saint of Skiathos, celebrated on the 21st of November, and guarded today at the Three Holy Hierarchs Church.

Most of the Monastery’s structures- apart from the Catholicon- were constructed at the end of the 19th century. There is very little information available about the initial structures. The spring outside the Monastery’s west side was created mid-19th century by the Elder Dionysios, an exceptional spiritual personality of not only Skiathos but the entire Greek Orthodox Church.

The Monastery was used as school during the Turkish Rule. Judging by the chronicle of the Icon of Panagia discovered in the mid-17th century and by two inscriptions informing us of the catholicon’s restoration in 1726, the catholicon must have been built during the last quarter of the 17th century.

"There still whitens the old little monastery of the Virgin Mary, which comes from deep grass, between the pine and the chestnut trees, a little higher than the warm embrace of the sea of Aselinos, where the sun reigns sweetly, slowly, as if it were collecting and hiding gold and glittering ornaments, amassing, little by little, a treasure of its own". ("Dead traveler" Alex. Papadiamantis)

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