Built in the center of the peninsula just 500 meters from Karyes, it was founded in the 13th century. Its Catholicon is from the year 1540, frescoed around the same period and its feast day is the Transfiguration on August 6. During the 16th century, it has known great wealth due to the protection form the rulers of Moldo-Wallachia. It has remarkable wood-carved iconostasis in its Catholicon of the early 19th century. Among its relics is the icon of the Theotokos “Fovera Prostasia”. Its library has 662 manuscripts and 3.500 printed works. It is the 6th in the hierarchy of Mt. Athos.

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