ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY HOLY MONASTERY'S CHURCH - ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY HOLY MONASTERY'S CHURCH

Your soul praises

Oh Holy Mary save U.S!

The Holy Monastery of the Entrances of the Virgin Myrtia (or the Monastery of Panagia Faneromeni) is located in the prefecture of Etoloakarnania, outside the village of Myrtia, on the road that connects Agrinio with Thermo. It celebrates on November 21 (at the Entrances of the Virgin Mary) while the chapel of the Transfiguration, located in the Monastery, celebrates on August 6. The katholikon of the monastery is a cruciform inscribed church and was built in the 16th century except for the sanctuary which is older. The sanctuary was built as a separate church in the 11th -12th century and four centuries later the church was attached to the west, which is today the main church of the monastery. The narthex was built in the 17th century. The hagiographies of the temple are not of the same period. There are frescoes of the 12th and 13th centuries, 1491, 1539 and 1712. The oldest fresco is the Assumption of the Virgin, which dates back to the 12th or 13th century. The hagiography of the arch and the arch of the sanctuary was done in 1491 by the painter Digenis Xenos according to the spirit of the Cretan School while the main church was hagiographed by an unknown painter in 1539 according to the Continental School. During the Turkish occupation, the Monastery of Myrtia was a center of education and Saint Cosmas of Aetolia lived there for a while. After the Battle of Myrtia, on July 10, 1943, the German occupation troops set fire to the buildings of the monastery in retaliation, but the katholikon was saved.