Holy Monastery of Agia Lavra

Identified with the Greek uprising of 1821, and characterized as a national metropolis, the Holy Monastery of Agia Lavra, at a distance of 6km from the martyred town of Kalavryta, is located on the green slopes of Mt Velia and is a leading national religious pilgrimage.
With its foundation dating to 961, it is a fully organized monastic complex with four wings, housing the guesthouses, the ascetic cells of the monks and the chapels. The Paleomonastery – 300m higher – the historical church and the modern church are the monastery’s three catholicons in its historical phases.
Highlights include a 600-year-old plane tree, the imposing statue of the prelate and revolutionary Palaion Patron Germanos, and the museum, rich in relics of religious and historical importance. The most valuable item here is the Banner of the Oath of the Fighters of 1821, the nation’s first flag, on which the Greek Revolution was proclaimed. Of an elongated rectangular shape (120cm X 95cm), the Banner was used as a curtain of the Beautiful Gate of the iconostasis of the historical church, and is now kept in a special case.
Other priceless treasures include an epitaph embroidered in Smyrna in 1754, an icon of Saint George embroidered in Constantinople in 1800, two Gospel manuscripts on membrane, one of which dates from the 11th century, gold-embroidered vestments from the 16th century - worn by Palaion Panton Germanos, and patriarchal seals, with the oldest one dating from 1615.
The monastery’s library is also noteworthy, nowadays with some 3,000 titles on its selves, while its reliquaries keep the relics of many saints, among them the holy skull of Saint Alexios.
The male monastery celebrates the Dormition of the Virgin Mary on August 15.