Athens Christian Tour
The tour is calculated according the Churhes and Monasteries open hours.
So we can pick you up at 10.30am from your place to visit Monastery of Agios Ioannis Prodromos of Kareas. The monastery is located close to the ancient quarries in Karea, on a rocky ravine of the western slope of Hymettus. It was most probably established in 1100 and it was first cited in 1575, in relation to a renovation of the catholicon.
You will spend about half an hour there and the second stop will be Kaisariani's Monastery. Monastery stands some 350 metres high. Believed to date back to the late 11th century, the four-column, cruciform church has been expanded ? with its Chapel of St. Antony and narthex added under Ottoman occupation. The monastery also includes baths from the Byzantine era and preserved frescoes from the 17th and 18th centuries.
The next stop will be at The Monastery of Daphni to admire the complex of mosaics. The ancient temple of Daphni that had been desecrated by the Goths in 395, and reusing the Ionic columns of the ancient temple of Apollo in its portico; only one remains, the others having been removed to London by Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin. The principal church (catholikon), a fine monument of the 11th-century Byzantine art, is a cross-in-square church of the octagonal type surmounted by a broad and high dome. The church houses the best preserved complex of mosaics from the early Comnenan period (ca. 1100) Today, this unique monastery is included in the UNESCO World Heritage list.
After Dafni we will visit the Kapnikarea Church stands out as a major landmark in Athens? Byzantine past. Dating from the 11th century, the church lies in the middle of Ermou Street and is dedicated to the Presentation of the Virgin Mary. The church was built atop an older, Christian temple, commissioned in the 5th century AC by the Byzantine empress Eudokia, wife of Theodosius the Younger.
If you wish you can make a short stop for a coffe break at plaka area that is next to kapnikarea square.
We leave the Kapnikarea Square approx 15.30 to visit The Agios Ioannis Kynigos (St. John the Hunter) Monastery is located on the northern side of Mount Hymettus. Built in late 12th or early 13th century, the monastery?s catholicon (main church building) is a cruciform, double-column sanctuary. Among the prominent names mentioned in the monastery?s inscriptions are John the Baptist and Philosophos, a monk believed to come from the Philosophon Monastery in Arcadia. We will be there at 16.00.
The final stop will be at The Agios Ioannis Theologos Monastery, Papagou. For years, archaeologists have debated the exact age of the monastery. Some believe that construction began in the 12th century and continued until the early post-Byzantine Era, while others think it was built much later, in the 17th century. With valid arguments supporting both sides, the debate has yet to be settled. Frescoes preserved in various parts of the Catholicon have proved to come from the post-Byzantine Era.
The duration of the tour takes approx 6 - 8 hours and of course you can change our proposed programme (as it is your private tour!)
