The Zygos Monastery is an old Athonite monastery founded in the mid-10th century and destroyed shortly before 1198. It is located approximately 2 km east of Ouranoupoli, just outside the borders of Mount Athos, in a location also known as Frankokastro (just 40 meters outside the current boundary of Mount Athos). Evidence suggests that it is one of the oldest monastic foundations on the Athonite peninsula. It was brought to light by archaeologists, led by Ioakeim Papangelos, after research conducted in 1984. The archaeological research is overseen by the 10th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities.
As the head of the excavation states, *”Mount Athos has been continuously inhabited and renewed. Therefore, if someone wants to study the monasteries within Mount Athos from an archaeological, structural, or liturgical perspective, they must search elsewhere. The Zygos Monastery was founded in the 10th century and was already deserted by 1198. It was minimally dismantled for building materials—so what exists there is part of ancient Mount Athos.”*
At the excavation site, visitors can see the castle, the towers, and especially the katholikon of the Zygos Monastery, which archaeologists are uncovering. The castle consists of five construction phases, all earlier than 1211. The area within the walls spans 5.5 acres, and the walls had 11 towers—some of which are being restored.
HISTORICAL DETAILS
When Saint Athanasios the Athonite, founder of the Great Lavra Monastery, first came to Mount Athos around 958, he settled in the area of the Zygos Monastery and undertook his first ascetic trial under the guidance of an elder monk in the region. However, the first mention of the name “Zygos” occurs in a document from 942, without clarification as to whether it refers to a location, monastery, or settlement. The first clear reference to the existence of the Zygos Monastery appears in 992, by which time it was already a significant monastic center with a defined role in the functioning of the Athonite state.
In 1018, during the abbacy of Nifon, the monastery’s property expanded with land grants from the Athonite community. During the same period, the monastery complex was enlarged, and the new katholikon (central church) was built, which has been identified and is the focus of excavation and restoration efforts.
In the 11th century, the Zygos Monastery was one of the most important Athonite monasteries, ranking high in the hierarchy of monastic establishments. Within a century, the complex as revealed through archaeological research was completed. It is a pentagonal castle reinforced with ten or eleven towers. For reasons unknown, the monastery was deserted by the late 12th century and, through a chrysobull of Emperor Alexios Angelos Komnenos, was granted to the reestablished Hilandar Monastery, along with its dependencies.
Around 1206, a Frankish lord appears to have occupied the Zygos castle and launched raids on Mount Athos—a practice halted in 1211 with the intervention of the Pope. For this reason, the monastery ruins were known locally and frequently referred to on maps as Frankokastro.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL-EXCAVATION RESEARCH
Abandonment and the extraction of stones for building materials turned the monastery into a sad pile of ruins, which continued to serve as a source of materials for local inhabitants until the 1980s. Six lime kilns operated within and around the monastery. Notably, the lime used to build the Xenia hotel in Ouranoupoli in 1960 came from here.
Valuable information about the monastery has been drawn from the records of the 10th Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities, responsible for the archaeological research. Recent excavations have revealed that the monastery was built on a site with prior settlements dating from the 4th century BC to the 6th century AD. The complex consists of the old core (the western part), which was doubled in size with an eastern extension.
The katholikon lies within the extension and began construction in the first half of the 11th century. It consists of four clearly distinguishable construction phases: initially, a complex tetraconch main church with a narrow narthex was built. In the second phase, a northern chapel with a founder’s tomb was added; in the third phase, an exonarthex was constructed; and in the fourth, a southern single-aisled domed chapel with another founder’s tomb was added. Subsequently, three official tombs were constructed adjacent to the southern wall of the katholikon. It is a cross-in-square church with two funerary chapels.
The church walls survive to a height of 2–4 meters. Its marble architectural elements, though intricately crafted, were partially looted early on, and most of those remaining were fragmented. The four columns that supported the dome are missing, but the marble diaphragm of the northern biforate opening of the main church is almost entirely intact. The church interior was plastered with fine lime mortar and frescoed. In the narthex, parts of the grand Annunciation scene and stone crosses were preserved. In the apse of the southern chapel’s prothesis, two layers of frescoes depicting a full-length hierarch, likely Saint Nicholas, were uncovered.
The katholikon and northern chapel floors feature exquisite marble inlays, likely crafted in the 11th century, which remain in good condition. In the 16th–17th century, when the katholikon was partially ruined, an olive press complex was installed in the narthex. A second olive press was installed in a ruined building in the monastery courtyard, though both had ceased operations before 1858.
The archaeological excavations have unearthed many findings, and excavation and restoration work continues. The most significant portable finds include the marble architectural decor, marble mosaic floors characteristic of Byzantine architecture, and numerous smaller artifacts, such as three 11th-century lead seals, book clasps, a gilded silver medallion with a carved depiction of Saint Paraskevi, a tiny seal, an encolpion with an image of an Archangel, glass tesserae from wall mosaics, copper needles and thimbles, knives, 11th–12th-century coins, glazed ceramics, and glass vessels of the same period.
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