Greece · GR

Monastery of Hosios Loukas

On the forested western slopes of Mount Helicon in Boeotia, facing Parnassus across a valley of olive trees, the Monastery of Hosios Loukas is one of the finest survivors of the Middle Byzantine world. Founded in the 10th century by the hermit Luke of Steiris, its walled compound of two linked churches, gilded mosaics and polychrome marble has earned it a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1990, alongside the monasteries of Daphni and Nea Moni. This is a living monastery as much as a monument: monks still keep the relics of their saint, and the complex is at once a place of worship, a gallery of 11th-century art and a site bound up with the Greek War of Independence. For a visitor, the reward is an architectural and pictorial ensemble of rare completeness, set in a landscape untouched by time.