Kaisariani Monastery

The Kaisariani Monastery (Greek: Μονή Καισαριανής) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery built on the north side of Mount Hymettus, near Athens, Greece.

The monastery was probably established in Byzantine times in ca. 1100, which is the date of construction of the surviving church (the monastery's katholikon). Nevertheless, the site has a far longer history as a cult center: in Antiquity, it was probably a site dedicated to Aphrodite, before being taken over by Christians in the 5th/6th centuries. Remains of a large early Christian basilica lie to the west, over which a smaller church was built in the 10th/11th centuries.

The monastery is mentioned by Pope Innocent III after the Fourth Crusade, but seems to have remained in Greek Orthodox hands, unlike other churches and monasteries that were taken over by Latin (Roman Catholic) clergy. A further, now ruined single-aisled church, was built to the southwest during the Frankish period. When, in 1458, the Turks occupied Attica, Sultan Mehmed II went to the monastery and, according to Jacob Spon (1675), a French doctor from Lyon, that is where he was given the key to the city.

In 1678, Patriarch Dionysius IV defined the monastery as Stauropegic, that is to say, free and independent of the metropolitan bishop: its only obligation was to perform funeral rites. Later on, in 1792, Patriarch Neophytos VII retracted the monastery's privileges; it once again came under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Athens. From 1824 onwards, the monastery was "submitted to abject treatment. What had previously been instrumental in enlightening mankind and saving souls, was now being used as a palace for cows, fowl and horses".

...
Wikipedia