Nea Moni, Chios

Nea Moni of Chios is actually an old historical monastery, founded in 1042 AD. and is known worldwide for its excellent mosaic art. It is celebrated during the performance of the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 23). In 1990 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Position

Nea Moni is located in the center of the island of Chios, at a distance of 12 km from the city of Chios. The architectural complex of the monastery is located at an altitude of 670 meters above sea level, in a valley of the southern Provatio Mountains or Provatas, the rocky slopes of which close the view except for a small opening, while the view ascends from the city she is wonderful. The area was pine-covered and today the forest is being reborn after a fire. Towards the southern edge of Provatas, west and higher of the Nea Moni is the Hermitage of the Holy Fathers, founders of the monastery. The geographical coordinates of the monastery are 38 ° 23΄ north latitude and 26 ° 04΄ east longitude. The whole complex of Nea Moni covers an area of ​​17 acres.

History
The establishment of the Monastery
General view of the Nea Moni of Chios

During the first half of the 11th century AD. Three monks, Nikitas, John and Joseph, who later came close to the first two, practiced in a cave on Mount Provati. One night in 1034 they saw, according to tradition, a light from their hermitage in the woods, which remained visible, motionless in the same place, for several nights. They thought it was a divine sign ("sign") and tried to approach it, but the vegetation was very dense. After thinking, they lit a fire to clean the area, so when it went out they saw a myrtle (partridge in the Chian idiom) that had been left untouched by the fire and on its branches an image of the Virgin Mary. It was probably hidden by a believer in the difficult times of the Iconoclasm that had preceded it to save it. The monks took her and carried her to their drowned and dark cave. The image, however, miraculously left her alone and returned to the unburned mercienia. This forced the three monks to build a small temple of the Virgin Mary on their own in the exact place where her icon was discovered, and in order not to leave her alone, they also built their cells and moved there. So this was the first, the OLD monastery, which then brought the characterization of the Nea Moni to the majestic later complex.

One night, according to legend, the Virgin Mary appeared in the sleep of the three monks and told them to go to Lesvos to meet the exiled Constantine the Gladiator and to announce to him that he would soon return to Constantinople and become emperor. Indeed, Nikitas and Joseph traveled to Lesvos and conveyed to Constantine the joyful message. Constantine, being honest in his words, promised them that if their providence was verified, he would give them whatever they asked for. Then his monks narrated all the incidents in relation to the icon and begged him when he reigned to build a majestic church in the Virgin Mary where the icon was found. Constantine assured them and offered them his princely ring.

In 1042, Zoe the Purple-Born recalled the Gladiator from exile, married him and proclaimed him Emperor. As soon as the three Chian ascetics were informed of the news, they traveled to the City and reminded the new Emperor of his promise, showing her sample, his princely ring. The Gladiator kept his promise and thus gave orders to build a majestic monastery church in Chios: "It emits an architect of the construction with many other craftsmen, and decrees the construction concerning the location of the unburned Myrrh-Nersini" (C). p.25). The Emperor's interest was not limited to the construction of the temple, but continued throughout his life, with at least 10 gold bulls, with which he provided the Nea Moni with many privileges and donations.

A few years later, Nikitas and Ioannis were slandered by the then Patriarch and exiled until 1057. But later, Joseph, being the abbot of the monastery, was accused of abusing her property, but the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes, personally examining her complaint, acquitted him. The three founding monks were thus claimed to have died in the Nea Moni. The Church ranked them among the saints and honors their memory on May 20, the date of the death of the first to die, Nikitas.

The season of acne
Exterior view of the katholikon of Nea Moni

The construction of the temple was completed after the death of the Gladiator (1055) by Zoe's sister, Theodora, when the Exonarthex was built and the decoration was completed. Until the end of the Byzantine Empire, each Emperor had the Monastery directly under his control. During the Ottoman Empire, when all matters concerning Christian subjects were transferred to the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Nea Moni became the "Patriarchal Cross" until 1859, when this title was abolished. Its abbot had the right to hold a "crutch" and wear a mantle, while he was completely independent of the Bishop of Chios and was accountable only to the Patriarch.

Despite being looted by the Saracens around 1300, the Nea Moni reached its peak during the late Byzantine period, when it reached about a thousand monks. This number is not excessive, since the Monastery came to own two thirds of the island's estates. From 1346 onwards, when Chios was occupied by the Genoese, the Nea Moni lost many of these estates. On the contrary, the Ottomans respected its privileges, in the context of the special regime that Chios enjoyed during the Turkish occupation.

The various travelers who visited it from the 16th to the 19th century, in addition to the beautiful descriptions of the temple, also give interesting information. Samuel Purchas at the end of the 16th century. gives 200 monks: "The monastery is known for its 4 bells, not for their size, but because only these monks from all the monks of all the Greek country are allowed to use them." In the 17th century L. Gheyalier mentions 150 monks and F. Lupazolo 100. In the 18th century the Russian monk B. Barsky drafted an accurate plan of the monastery and wrote that it is the most important of the island and has 200 monks. During his visit in 1725, the Patriarch of Jerusalem Chrysanthos Notaras informed about the relics kept there: of Theodoros of Tyron, the chariot of St. Eustathios, the chariot of St. Philip (one of the 7 deacons), the chariot of the Apostle Timothy ... ". In 1729, Abbot Fourmont visited the Nea Moni and wrote: “The 200 monks are the 50 priests and do not admire this. The Sultan benefits 10,000 groschen a year, without ... ... the gifts that are obligatory to offer to the island and the Turks in Constantinople ... ... It is a large square village with continuous houses and squares. spacious in the center, including the Temple ... ... the images are beautiful, the Crucified One himself, unique and perhaps incomparable in the world, all by the hand of a John of Moscow. "

During the Turkish occupation, a wealthy Turkish woman decided to visit the monastery, despite the ban on women entering it. On the way, however, they informed her that a large fire had broken out in the tower where she was staying. He attributed this to the punishment of the Virgin Mary because he had in mind to break the abyss, so he begged her to save her valuables by giving her a precious gold embroidered cloth. Returning to her tower, she found only her room saved from the fire, so she donated to the Monastery the gold-embroidered cloth that she had tamed. Until today, the area south of the city of Chios where the tower was located is called "Burnt Tower".
The catastrophes of the 19th century

Almost all of the above were lost during the two major catastrophes that hit Chios in the 19th century. One was anthropogenic (the Massacre of Chios in 1822), while the other was natural (the earthquake of 1881).
The destruction of 1822

In the massacres of 1822, thousands of women and children ran to the highest and most fortified places, such as Agios Minas, Anavatos and Nea Moni. But "under the pretext that the Samians had taken refuge in the great monastery of the Nea Moni" (Puckeville), 1,800 Turks headed there, even dragging cannons against unarmed monks. After slaughtering all the monks, they methodically looted everything, taking the women and children as slaves, and finally set fire to the monastery. Only the "non-flammable" icon of the Virgin Mary was found just a little torn in the center and a little burnt at the top. The porphyry stone shrine that contained the remains of the three founding fathers, Nikita, Ioannis and Joseph (only the cart of one was found, unknown to whom) was also lost in this catastrophe. The church was burned down again in 1828 by the Turks.
The earthquake of 1881

The earthquake on March 22, 1881 completed the disaster, destroying the dome and most of the temple, and destroying most of the mosaics. Of course, the bell tower, which was built in 1512, collapsed at the expense of "Kyros Antoniou Frangopoulou", according to a surviving inscription. It was rebuilt in 1900. After that, the monastery was almost deserted, so treasure hunters came in and tried to find something hidden, thus opening whole wells on the floor of the temple or large holes in its walls.

The modern age

The Metropolitan of Chios, Panteleimon Fostinis, was actively interested in the reconstruction of the Nea Moni during the period 1947-1962. To deal with the lack of monks, he turned the monastery from male to female. However, it damaged the architecture of the space with the unsightly-traditional reconstruction of the cells in the north of the enclosure. Even as a woman, the monastery had 5 nuns in 1980, while in the official census of 2001 three.

Architecture
The Catholic
View of the katholikon of Nea Moni, the marble iconostasis.

The Catholic Church, the main church of the Monastery, belongs to the then new (11th century) architectural type of the octagonal church, a type that is a variant of the inscribed cruciform with a dome but offers more space in the main church. The katholikon of the Nea Moni of Chios belongs in particular to the so-called simple octagonal or island type, in which the columns that support the dome have been attached to the walls forming pillars and niches instead of the alternation of arches and semicircles in the transition to the dome.

The relationship between the architecture of the catholic of the Nea Moni and the standards of the capital is possible due to the imperial sponsorship. According to tradition, Emperor Gladiator gave permission to the Chian monks and founders of the monastery to choose a design from any church in the capital they wanted, except Hagia Sophia. The monks, after many searches, chose the plan of the Holy Apostles of the Little Ones, that is, the smaller temple of the Holy Apostles. According to Strzygowski, it also has evidence from neo-Persian monuments, such as the palaces of Sarbistan and Samara.

The exonarthex or forearm is 15.5 m long and 6 m wide. Its "royal gate" consists of two monolithic columns of translucent marble with reddish hues ("the exonarthex is more luxurious than the temple itself," Barsky wrote). The side wings end in cylindrical niches protruding from the building. The main splint or inner splint is 10 m long and 4 m wide. Instead of a cruciform aisle (as in the monastery of Saint Luke), it is housed, which is unusual, with an entire dome in the shape of a relief wheel. The main temple is about 10 m long and wide. The 32 elegant white marble columns that adorned the interior no longer exist after the catastrophes, and those that replaced them are stronger but ungrateful. Purple orthomarbling also adds imperial grandeur. The iconostasis was made of white Tinian marble with gold decorations. It was destroyed in the earthquake and replaced in 1907 with an iconostasis of Chian reddish marble and in 1979 with a lower white Pentelic marble.

The chapels
View of the Nea Moni

The monastery has two chapels: Agios Panteleimon to the west of the Catholicos, in the architectural type of the basilica, had beautiful frescoes and an inscription dating to 1051 (ANAI), but collapsed in the earthquake of 1881 and was rebuilt in 1890 a little larger. The Holy Cross is located next to the main entrance of the Monastery. It was intended for women when their entry into the then male monastery was prohibited. Many skulls and other bones from the victims of the Chios Massacre are on display here. In the cemetery of the monastery there is also the church of Agios Loukas, a later building.
The rest of the buildings

Cells are not grounded. The ground floors of their buildings were intricate labyrinthine undergrowths that served as ancillary spaces and passages between the cells. The Archontariki, called "triklino" or "synodiko", was located on the site of today's hostel, northeast of the Catholicos. The bank where the monks ate is the work of 1631-1637, while the oldest is not preserved. The cistern is the water tank of the Monastery and has great value, as it has been preserved since the 11th century. It collected rainwater and measures 18 by 12 m. Its roof is formed by 15 domes, while the pillars and walls are made of white marble! It is similar to that of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, which the Turks call an "underground palace." The tall tower of the monastery, on the west side of the outer wall, must have been erected in the 14th century and is now half-ruined. In addition to his defensive role, he also served as a treasury-warehouse for amphibians, etc., and later as a library of the Monastery. In the cemetery there is also an ossuary, where the other bones of those slaughtered in 1822 and the bones of the other monks are kept.

The mosaics
The Resurrection, mosaic in the Nea Moni of Chios

The mosaics of the Nea Moni of Chios are one of the top three mosaic ensembles in Greece during the Middle Ages. The other two are the mosaics of the Monastery of Saint Luke in Boeotia and the Monastery of Daphni in Attica (Dafni).

The artists who worked here were from Constantinople, the imperial art workshops. They were inspired by the morphological types of late antiquity. In their work at the Nea Moni, which seems to be related to similar decoration trends in Istanbul, they submit a completely new artistic proposal, which was only in its infancy at the same time in the West. The projection of this trend in time could, in the estimation of some, give us evolutionary Renaissance.

The mosaics of the dome in the main temple are not preserved, but perhaps they depicted, according to the iconographic program of the cruciform church with a dome, the Pantocrator surrounded by the angelic forces. Slightly lower, in the spherical triangles below the dome, are the representations of the Cherubim and the Seraphim, as well as two of the four Evangelists, John (with damage) and Mark. Above the Holy Step, Platytera is saved headless.

Immediately below, in the niches of the octagon, scenes from the Twelfth, which continues in the narthex, are preserved. The best surviving representation is Baptism, which, along with the Crucifixion and Resurrection, is perhaps the most masterful triptych. There is also the Transfiguration and the Apostasy.

In the narthex of the narthex there was the Virgin as a bound mother, a mosaic that does not survive. Around her, she is "guarded" by full-body mosaics of "military saints" in arches (Eugenios, Auxentios, Efstratios, Sergios, Theodoros o Stratilatis, Vakhos, Orestis, Mardarios). In the arches of the narthex there were six Christological compositions: the Resurrection of Lazarus, the Holy Washbasin (in two parts with detailed inscriptions), the Betrayal of Judas (also with detailed mosaic inscriptions), the Ascension and the now destroyed Vaioforos and Pentecost.

The mosaics of the Nea Moni of Chios reflect more than one of the stylistic currents of Byzantine art of the end of the Macedonian dynasty. Characteristic of the classicist trend inspired by the aesthetic ideals of Greek and Roman antiquity are forms with plasticity in the performance of the body, distinction of stable and comfortable leg in the upright position, clothing that allows body volumes to appear, rich hair and wide range in variety. colors and gradation of color tones. Such figures as the prophet Isaiah in the narthex refer to ancient statues of philosophers. Characteristic of the anti-classical, "dynamic" trend that will dominate the next century are abstract and flat forms, with a wealth of linear elements, intense shadows and dynamic movements (eg John from the Crucifixion or Christ from the Resurrection). The same tendency of extinction and spirituality is served by austerity in the rendering of depth, which often covers a homogeneous golden surface, transferring the action to an eerie environment flooded with divine light.

Finally, it is noteworthy that the creators paid attention to the mosaics of the main temple, placed higher than the viewer, to show the correct proportions when viewed from below. Those representations that cover curved surfaces have a slightly "compressed" central or other part so that they can be seen with the correct proportions in the viewer, as well as other corrections that would theoretically require knowledge of projective geometry.

Sources, bibliography

LET. Axiotakis, The Nea Moni of Chios, Chios 1980
Gr. Nikiforou-Foteinou, Neamonasia, Chios 1865
An. Orlandos, Byzantine monuments of Chios, Athens 1930
M. Panagiotopoulou, "Nea Moni of Chios", Great Greek Encyclopedia "Pyrsou", vol. 18, Athens 1930
Ch. Bouras, The Nea Moni of Chios, published by Emporiki Bank of Greece, Athens 1981
Doula Mourikis, The mosaics of the Nea Moni of Chios, 2 vols., Published by Emporiki Bank of Greece, Athens 1985
A. Christofidou - A. Papanikolaou, “Contribution to the building history of the katholikon of the Nea Moni of Chios. Newer Evidence ", Bulletin of the Christian Archaeological Society 28 (2007): pp. 41-54
S. Vogiatzis, "Newer data on the building history of the katholikon of the Nea Moni of Chios", Bulletin of the Christian Archaeological Society 14 (1989): pp. 159-171
S. Vogiatzis, "Newer data on the building history of the katholikon of the Nea Moni of Chios", in: Sixteenth Eighth Symposium of the Christian Archaeological Society, Athens 1998, pp. 10-11

External links

The Nea Moni on the website of the Greek Ministry of Culture
The Nea Moni on the website of the Church of Greece
The mosaics of the Nea Moni

Municipal unit Omiroupoli
Municipal Community Vrontados
Aipos (Αίπος, ο)
Vrontados (Βροντάδος, ο)
Moni Agiou Stefanou (Μονή Αγίου Στεφάνου, η)
Moni Myrsinidiou (Μονή Μυρσινιδίου, η)
Municipal Community Lagkada
Agios Stefanos (Άγιος Στέφανος, ο (νησίς))
Agrelopos (Αγρελωπός, ο)
Lagkada (Λαγκάδα, η)
Community Anavatos
Anavatos (Ανάβατος, ο)
Community Avgonyma
Avgonyma (Αυγώνυμα, τα
Community Karyes
Agia Paraskevi (Αγία Παρασκευή, η)
Agios Dimitrios (Άγιος Δημήτριος, ο)
Karyes (Καρυαί, αι)
Moni Agiou Markou (Μονή Αγίου Μάρκου, η)
Moni Agion Pateron (Μονή Αγίων Πατέρων, η)
Nea Moni (Νέα Μονή, η)
Community Sidirounta
Sidirounta (Σιδηρούντα, η)
Community Sykiada
Pantoukios (Παντουκιός, ο)
Sykiada (Sykiada) (Συκιάδα, η

See also: Chios (island)