Architecture and Sacred Landscape in Byzantium

Making Prodromos Monastery on Mount Menoikeion

Bakirtzis, Nikolas

Widely recognized as an important example of late Byzantine monasticism in the Balkans, the monastery of Agios Ioannis Prodromos on Mount Menoikeion near the city of Serres in Northern Greece, provides an instructive paradigm for the ways monastic tradition framed the foundation, refoundation and architectural development of monasteries in the Byzantine and post-Byzantine period.
This is the first in-depth study of Prodromos monastery’s architectural history and organization, as well as the first attempt to locate it at the nexus of a sacred landscape surrounding the well-preserved complex. In this framework, the present study addresses different aspects of the monastery’s traditions and realities, incorporating broad methodological approaches to sacred topographies and cultural landscapes. Drawing on systematic fieldwork, new research and conclusions shed light on the history, topography, architecture and life of the community, currently a vibrant sisterhood of nuns, which for centuries has been at the center of this monastic world on Mount Menoikeion.