Monastery of the Virgin Dormition in Divri (Lower Monastery)

South of Dibri (Lampia) is the Holy Dormition Monastery, better known as Kato Moni. It is celebrated on August 23 as it is dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin. On the north side of the monastery, whose wings surround a small courtyard, is the catholicon. It is a single-room hall with a vaulted ceiling, without a narthex and with the entrance located on its south side.

Murals from 1746 adorn the holographic church, which has a wood-carved iconostasis with an inscription that dates it to the 18th century. The decoration of the church represents full-length saints, ascetics and monks, the Akathistos Hymn, scenes from the Christological cycle, the Second Coming, while the arch is occupied by the Pantocrator surrounded by the Virgin, John the Forerunner, orders of angels and the evangelists. The hagiographies continue in the sanctuary, with two performances of miracles and the Elevation of the Holy Cross, hierarchs and deacons, while in the arch between the hierarchs and the Platytera the Divine Liturgy and the Communion of the Apostles are depicted.

The church preserves in the arch of its entrance the written founding inscription in which the father Chrysanthos hieromonk Markouris is mentioned as the founder of the catholicon with the fathers of the monastery. The monastery was built in 1746-1747 under Bishop Olenis Simeon and its painter was Antonios from Nezara Kalavryton. On the west side of the entrance to the catholicon there is a scene depicting the founders tying themselves offering the monastery to the Virgin.

Copyediting:

Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia