Church of Panagia at Chrysovitsa

  To the west of Metsovo, at an altitude of approximately 1000 m., lies the village Chrysovitsa named after the historic church of Panagia Chrysovitsa. The current parish church used to be the katholikon of a monastery that according to tradition was established on the site where the portable icon of Panagia was miraculously found. Two inscriptions on the interior walls of the church indicate that the monastery was founded within the 13th century.
  In its heyday, this was the richest monastery of the region. Today only the katholikon is preserved, dedicated to the Dormition of the Theotokos (Assumption of the Virgin Mary). The three-aisled basilica with the attached portico resting on four square pillars and the roof of dark schist slabs is a characteristic example of the basilica type of Epirus that flourished in the 18th century. The only absolute chronology established for the whole complex is the year 1781, to which date the wall-paintings of the katholikon. These were made by Ioannis and Georgios, sons of Athanassios, renowned painters from Kapesovo, an area which nourished an important tradition in religious painting from the early 18th to the mid-19th centuries. Visitors’ attention will also attract the wood-carved iconostasis and bishop’s throne of the katholikon.
  Apart from the church of Panagia, other preserved features of the original monastic form are a few monk cells, fully restored today, one of the main gates to the monastery with its heavy oak door and the walls surrounding the whole complex, indicating that this was once a fort-like monastery.