Monastery · Daphni, Chaidari, Attica
Daphni Monastery
Μονή Δαφνίου
Daphni Monastery is an 11th-century Byzantine monastery at the end of Iera Odos in Chaidari, Attica, whose katholikon is known for its wall mosaics; it is an archaeological site of the Ministry of Culture.
Why go
Hellenic Heritage presents Daphni Monastery as an archaeological site of the Middle Byzantine period, with an 11th-century octagonal katholikon dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary at the centre of a walled complex, and wall mosaics that include the Pantocrator in the dome. It says the monastery was later used as a garrison, a shelter for rebels and a powder magazine in the 1821 Revolution, and then as a public psychiatric hospital. The Ministry of Culture's Odysseus page, which Wikidata gives as the official website, describes a square fortification wall with towers and two gates, and says Cistercian monks, to whom the Duke of Athens conceded the monastery in the Frankish period, gave the exonarthex its present form. Odysseus names the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica as the responsible unit and says the site stays closed when a category 5 fire-risk alert is in force. The site is in the municipality of Chaidari, not in Athens; whether a monastic community lives there is not stated in these sources.
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