Holy Monastery of Agios Nikolaos Frangopidimatos

Almost 8km south of Amaliada and about 13km north of Pyrgos, the Holy Monastery of Agios Nikolaos, one of the most historic in Ilia and an important pilgrimage for the whole of the Western Peloponnese, is also known as the monastery of Frangopidimatos.
Its name goes back many centuries, when, according to tradition, a Frankish knight jumped off the cliff with his horse to avoid being captured by his pursuers and, invoking Saint Nicholas, was saved. Fulfilling his vow, he later built a temple and dedicated the area to the saint.
The monastery’s building complex, with the buildings of the cells all around it and the central church, a basilica small in length and width but of great height, lying in the middle, is quite impressive for its size. The monastery underwent a phase of reconstruction following some damage caused by the earthquakes of 1993, while it acquired a second, more spacious and imposing church, in the Byzantine style.
The monastery was re-established as a women's monastery by a 1929 decree, with the nuns engaging in many ministries, including awarded hand-woven textiles. The monastery celebrates on December 6.