Panagia tou Nikous Monastery of the Virgin Mary

This historic monastery is approximately one kilometer southeast of the center of Chora (the island's capital). Built on the ruins of an ancient temple, it got the name 'Panagia tou Nikous' from 'Panagia Nikopoios' (meaning 'Victory-maker'), the Byzantine way of addressing the Virgin Mary. According to tradition, a famous icon of the Virgin Mary was brought here after the fall of Constantinople, before the Venetians transported it to the Church of Saint Mark in Venice. The monastery flourished from 1800 to 1840, when it functioned as a spiritual center under the guidance of the Greek teacher Makarios Filippaios, who was a graduate of the Phanar Greek Orthodox College, known in Greek as the Great School of the Nation, in Istanbul, Turkey. On the 15th of August there is a big festival at ​​the monastery in honor of the Virgin Mary.