Nea Moni means ‘New Monastery’. However, ‘new’ is a relative term—especially in a country like Greece: this monastery is actually around 1000 years old. A sign by the entrance reminds the visitor that it has UNESCO World Heritage status.
A millennium is a long time and you would not expect many man-made structures to survive without major repairs, particularly in an area that is prone to earthquakes and has also experienced frequent attacks by invading forces. The bell tower was reconstructed in 1900.
The photo below shows the ruins of some of the old monastic cells just below the main church.
The latter is the monastery’s central and largest structure.
The ceilings of the church are covered with pictures of saints and other images of religious themes. Unfortunately, many are damaged, some badly.
At first glance it might seem as if these images are paintings, but on closer inspection they reveal themselves to be intricate mosaics. The two close-ups below show this more clearly.
Some of the pieces used are minute and even most of the larger ones measure only a few millimetres across. Glass, apparently from Constantinople, was one of the key materials employed in creating the mosaics. Others included marble, terracotta, and limestone.
A separate chapel within the complex contains an ossuary.
The bones on display here belong to victims of the 1822 Chios Massacre, when Turkish troops brutally slaughtered tens of thousands of the island’s inhabitants. Scores of monks were killed, along with many of the people who had sought refuge here.
Another building houses the monks’ refectory. As the photo indicates, it has been completely restored fairly recently. The long dining table is impressive, although the benches do not look exactly comfortable—maybe they once had cushions on them.
There is also a museum here. It is quite small, but contains a number of interesting objects.
At the back of the complex are further ruins of some earlier buildings as well as an almost intact underground cistern.
The monastery never fully recovered from the terrible events of 1822 and, due to a scarcity of male aspirants for a monastic life here, it was turned into a convent in 1952. It is now run by a small number of nuns.
