Isovas Monastery in Tripiti Skillountias

According to historical references, the Isovas Monastery was built in 1223-1225 by Cistercian monks of Clairvo. The monastery consisted of its elongated Katholikon, its embedded vertical abbey building, C-shaped as well as two opposite walls, extending the sides so that the outline of the monastery is a quadrilateral. In the rest of the northern side of the Katholikon, on the west side of the Abbey and on the inner side of the walls, there was a continuous wooden shed, resting on wooden columns, creating a peristyle leaving a patio inside. The building has several characteristics of the Gothic temples. It is a single-aisled basilica covered with a rocky roof according to the temples of the Western temples in the 12th and 13th centuries.
The ruins of the Monastery – one of the most important Gothic monuments in Greece – are located west of the village of Tripiti in the municipality of Andritsena – Kresten, in a small valley. The remnants of the impressive building stand behind the church of St. Nicholas, which was later created. The length of the monastery exceeds 40 meters and the northern wall and the western arch have been preserved from there. Its characteristic feature was the slick windows. Also to the north of the temple are traces of the monks’ cells.