Tucked away at an elevation of roughly 400 meters in a secluded limestone valley on the eastern flank of Mount Provateion Oros in the rugged interior of the island of Chios in the North Aegean, some 15 kilometers west of the island's main port town, the Monastery of Nea Moni (transliterated from Greek as Moni Neas Monis Chiou, meaning the New Monastery) rises quietly amid pine woods, cypress trees, and wild Mediterranean myrtle. Viewed from the mountain road, the trapezoidal monastic enclosure resembles an austere medieval fortress ringed by high stone perimeter walls, a ruined eleventh-century defensive tower at its northwest corner, and tiers of monastic cells built of local gray stone, completely hidden from the sea lanes of the Aegean.
Yet the moment a visitor steps inside the eleventh-century main church (Katholikon), the rustic simplicity of the island exterior gives way to the breathtaking splendor of the imperial court of Constantinople: beneath a soaring octagonal dome, lower walls sheathed in deep red Chian marble support an extraordinary cycle of eleventh-century gold-ground mosaics where sunlight streaming through high windows illuminates the Risen Christ trampling the gates of Hades, the Baptism in the Jordan, and the Virgin Mary in prayer. Funded directly from the imperial treasury and built between 1042 and 1049 by master architects and mosaicists dispatched from Constantinople by Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, Nea Moni of Chios was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1990 (Ref. 537, together with Hosios Loukas Monastery in Boeotia and Monastery of Daphni, Athens) as one of the three supreme monuments of Middle Byzantine Eastern Orthodox art and architecture.
IThe Miraculous Icon on the Burning Myrtle Bush, the Three Prophetic Hermits, and an Exiled Emperor's Vow
The Katholikon of Nea Moni is dedicated to the All-Holy Mother of God (Panagia Theotokos), celebrating its primary patronal feast on the Dormition of the Theotokos (Koimesis tis Theotokou, August 15). According to the monastery's liturgical tradition and historical chronicles, the sacred origins of Nea Moni began in the first half of the eleventh century during the reign of Emperor Michael IV the Paphlagonian (reigned 1034 to 1041). At that time, three ascetic monks native to Chios named Nikitas, Ioannis, and Iosif were living as hermits inside a rocky cave high on the slopes of Mount Provateion Oros, devoting their lives to unceasing contemplative prayer.
Night after night, the three ascetics beheld a mysterious pillar of light shining deep within the dense forest in the valley below their cave. Unable to penetrate the tangled undergrowth, they set fire to a patch of dry scrub to clear a path toward the vision. The forest fire swept down the slope and suddenly halted before a single wild myrtle bush that burned with brilliant flame yet remained completely unconsumed, recalling the Burning Bush beheld by Moses on Mount Horeb. Approaching the unburned myrtle, the three monks discovered a miraculous Icon of the Virgin Mary hanging among its branches. Three times they carried the sacred icon up to their cave, and three times it miraculously returned overnight to the exact same myrtle bush, convincing the hermits that the Mother of God desired a church built on that very spot.
How a small mountain chapel built by three poor hermits became one of the most lavishly endowed imperial monasteries in the Byzantine Empire is tied to a dramatic chapter of eleventh-century dynastic history. During the late 1030s, the prominent Constantinopolitan nobleman Constantine Monomachos had been banished to Mytilene on the neighboring island of Lesbos (just north of Chios) by the suspicious regime of Emperor Michael IV and his brother John the Orphanotrophos, enduring seven years of lonely exile from 1035 to 1042. Guided by a divine revelation received in prayer before the miraculous icon of the Virgin, the three Chian monks Nikitas, Ioannis, and Iosif sailed across the Aegean from Chios to Lesbos, sought out the exiled nobleman Constantine Monomachos, and delivered an astonishing prophecy: his exile was about to end, and the Mother of God had revealed that he would soon be recalled to Constantinople to wed Empress Zoe and ascend the imperial throne of the Romans.
At first skeptical of the three ragged monks, Constantine Monomachos was moved by their unshakable certainty and swore a solemn vow: if their prophecy came true, he would build for their miraculous icon on Chios a magnificent church and monastery on whatever architectural plan they desired. Within months, Emperor Michael IV died and his successor Michael V Kalaphates was overthrown by a popular uprising in Constantinople in April 1042. The Macedonian royal sisters, Empresses Zoe and Theodora, immediately dispatched an imperial warship to Lesbos to bring Constantine Monomachos back to the capital. On June 11, 1042, he married Empress Zoe in the palace and was crowned the following day as Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos (reigned 1042 to 1055). When the three hermits traveled from Chios to the Great Palace in Constantinople to remind him of his promise, the grateful emperor fulfilled his vow in full, issuing a series of imperial golden bulls (Chrysobulls), opening the state treasury, and sending court architects and master mosaicists from Constantinople to Chios to construct Nea Moni.
In Byzantine political and liturgical theology, Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos's elevation of Nea Moni to the rank of a self-governing Imperial Stavropegic Monastery (placed directly under the protection of the Emperor and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, exempt from local episcopal control) reflected the ideal of Symphonia between imperial authority and monastic prayer. High in the eastern apse conch of the Katholikon, the towering gold mosaic of the Virgin Orans (Panagia Blachernitissa) raising both hands in intercession serves simultaneously as the maternal guardian of the island brotherhood and the invincible spiritual protector of the Byzantine Empire.
Visitors comparing Nea Moni with Hosios Loukas Monastery and Monastery of Daphni, Athens often assume that all three UNESCO-listed monasteries share the exact same octagonal church plan. Architectural historians draw a crucial distinction between two different regional designs: Hosios Loukas and Daphni belong to the mainland Greek cross-in-octagon type, where the central octagonal core is surrounded by side aisles, corner bays, and upper galleries; by contrast, the Katholikon of Nea Moni exemplifies the insular domed octagon (island octagon type), consisting of a single, tall, aisleless square chamber whose flat lower walls transition directly at the upper level into eight concave niches supporting the central dome without any side aisles.
IINine Centuries of History: From Imperial Golden Bulls to the 1822 Massacre and the 1881 Earthquake
Construction of the monastic complex of Nea Moni began in the summer of 1042 immediately after the coronation of Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and progressed for seven years until the solemn consecration of the Katholikon in 1049, six years before the emperor's death in January 1055. Through a sequence of imperial golden bulls issued in July 1044, 1045, 1049, and 1054, Constantine IX and subsequently Empress Theodora endowed the monastery with extraordinary fiscal privileges: complete exemption from state taxes, an annual cash stipend (roga) paid in gold coins from the imperial treasury, vast agricultural estates on Chios, and the poll-tax revenues (kapnikon) of fifteen Jewish families living on the island.
Sustained by its landed estates, olive groves, and revenues from the island's prized mastic resin trade across both the late Byzantine era and the centuries of Genoese rule on Chios (the Maona di Chio, 1346 to 1566), Nea Moni flourished as one of the wealthiest and most influential monastic centers in the Aegean Sea. During its sixteenth- and seventeenth-century peak, Western travelers and monastic records reported that up to 800 monks resided within its walls, managing nearly one-third of the arable land of Chios alongside a renowned scriptorium, library, and gold-embroidery workshop.
- Circa 1035 to 1042 CEThree hermits discover the Virgin's icon and prophesy to Constantine MonomachosThe Chian ascetics Nikitas, Ioannis, and Iosif find the miraculous icon of the Panagia on an unburned myrtle bush on Mount Provateion and cross to Lesbos to foretell that the exiled nobleman Constantine Monomachos will become Byzantine Emperor.
- 1042 to 1049 CEEmperor Constantine IX Monomachos builds the Katholikon and monastic complexFollowing his marriage to Empress Zoe and coronation on June 12, 1042, Constantine IX dispatches imperial architects and mosaicists from Constantinople to Chios to erect the domed-octagon Katholikon, refectory, cistern, and defensive tower, consecrated in 1049.
- July 1044 to 1054 CEPromulgation of Imperial Chrysobulls granting Stavropegic autonomy and estatesEmperor Constantine IX and Empress Theodora issue golden bulls confirming the monastery's independence from local bishops, tax immunity, annual gold stipends, and extensive estates on Chios.
- April 1822The Chios Massacre during the Greek War of IndependenceDuring the Ottoman suppression of Chios in Easter season 1822, more than two thousand women, children, and elderly islanders seeking refuge inside Nea Moni are slaughtered when Ottoman troops storm the monastery, loot its treasures, and burn its timber roofs.
- March 22 (April 3 New Style), 1881Catastrophic Chios earthquake collapses the main dome of the KatholikonA devastating earthquake of approximate magnitude 6.5 strikes Chios, causing the central dome of the Katholikon (along with its eleventh-century mosaic of Christ Pantokrator) and the eastern apse vaults to collapse.
- 1900, 1952, and 1990Reconstruction of the dome, conversion to a convent, and UNESCO World Heritage inscriptionThe central dome and bell tower are rebuilt around 1900; in 1952 Nea Moni becomes a women's convent before later returning to a male brotherhood; following extensive mosaic conservation by the Greek Archaeological Service, UNESCO inscribes Nea Moni as a World Heritage Site in 1990.
Twin nineteenth-century tragedies: The Easter Massacre of 1822 and the Great Earthquake of 1881. After nearly eight centuries of prosperity, Nea Moni suffered two devastating blows in the nineteenth century. In the spring of 1822, during the Greek War of Independence, Ottoman forces under Admiral Nasuhzade Ali Pasha landed on Chios to carry out the infamous Chios Massacre that shocked Europe and inspired Eugene Delacroix's celebrated painting in the Louvre. Because Nea Moni was surrounded by high stone walls in the mountain interior, some 2,000 Chian women, children, and elderly villagers fled to the monastery for sanctuary alongside the monks. Ottoman troops breached the gates, massacred the refugees inside the courtyard and church, stripped the sanctuary of its gold and silver reliquaries, and set fire to the complex.
Six decades later, on March 22, 1881 (Old Style, April 3 Gregorian), a violent earthquake leveled much of Chios. The tremor caused the entire central dome of the Katholikon to collapse into the nave, destroying the eleventh-century crowning mosaic of Christ Pantokrator and the surrounding angels, while also bringing down the eastern sanctuary vault and the upper stories of the medieval defensive tower. The dome was rebuilt in 1900 on an octagonal drum pierced by windows, and beginning in the 1960s the Ephorate of Byzantine Antiquities carried out meticulous conservation work to consolidate and clean the surviving eleventh-century gold mosaics in the eight conches below the dome and in the inner narthex.
When stepping into the small Chapel of the Holy Cross immediately to the left of the monastery's main entrance gate and seeing glass display cases filled with hundreds of human skulls and bones bearing deep sword and musket wounds, some visitors assume it is an ordinary monastic ossuary for deceased monks. In reality, these scarred bones are the venerated remains of the Chian martyrs and civilian refugees slain inside Nea Moni during the massacre of April 1822, preserved at the threshold of the monastery as a solemn historical memorial.
IIIThe Insular Domed-Octagon Katholikon, Constantinopolitan Gold Mosaics, and the Eleventh-Century Vaulted Cistern
Enclosed within a trapezoidal stone precinct covering approximately 17,000 square meters, the monastic complex of Nea Moni preserves all the essential structures of a self-contained Middle Byzantine monastery. Rising at the center of the courtyard is the Katholikon (main church), whose spatial design departed from mainland Greek churches and became the architectural prototype for later churches across Chios and Cyprus (the insular domed-octagon type).
Aligned from West to East, the Katholikon comprises three distinct zones: an Outer Narthex (Exonarthex) roofed by three small domes and flanked by semicircular lateral apses; a narrow barrel-vaulted Inner Narthex (Esonarthex); and the square Main Nave (Naos), which has no side aisles. The structural genius of the Naos lies in its vertical transition from a square ground plan to a circular dome: the lower zone is a simple square room sheathed in slabs of maroon-red Chian marble punctuated by eight pairs of octagonal colonnettes set against the walls; resting upon these colonnettes at the upper zone is a ring of eight concave niches, four shallow axial niches on the north, south, east, and west sides alternating with four deep corner squinches, which convert the square bay into an octagon supporting the central dome nearly 7 meters in diameter and rising over 15 meters above the inlaid marble floor.
The architectural archetype of the aisleless island octagon plan designed by master builders from Constantinople, featuring blind brick arcades on the exterior and an interior lined with red Chian marble revetments and an Opus sectile geometric marble floor.
Set within the eight concave niches supporting the central dome are dramatic eleventh-century gold mosaics: the Baptism of Christ, the Crucifixion, the Deposition from the Cross, and the triumphant Anastasis (Resurrection / Harrowing of Hell), alongside scenes originally depicting the Annunciation, Nativity, Presentation, and Transfiguration.
The Inner Narthex preserves magnificent mosaics including Christ Washing the Disciples' Feet (Nipter), the Betrayal of Judas, Christ Praying at Gethsemane, the Ascension, Pentecost, and a gallery of martyr and monastic saints including Saint Theodore the Studite, while the eastern apse displays the towering Virgin Blachernitissa.
Standing just inside the main entrance gate, this barrel-vaulted chapel houses glass reliquary cases containing the skulls and bones, many bearing visible saber cuts, of the monks and Chian civilians massacred at Nea Moni in April 1822.
Southwest of the Katholikon stands the medieval dining hall (Trapeza) preserving a built-in masonry dining table over 15 meters long inlaid with marble bands; to the northwest lies the half-subterranean eleventh-century Cistern roofed by fifteen brick domes resting on eight marble columns.
Anchoring the highest northwest corner of the enclosure is the monumental rectangular eleventh-century defensive tower once used as a treasury and refuge during pirate raids, accompanied by a restored museum displaying eleventh-century gold-embroidered textiles, icons, and imperial documents.
| Monument / Feature | Date and Attribution | Architectural, Artistic, and Historical Specifications |
|---|---|---|
| The Katholikon (Main Church) | 1042 to 1049 CE (Constantinopolitan imperial architects) | Aisleless insular domed-octagon church; eight pairs of wall colonnettes supporting four axial niches and four corner squinches beneath a 7-meter dome |
| 11th-Century Gold Mosaics | 1040s to 1050s (Imperial workshops of Constantinople) | Natural stone, colored glass, and gold-leaf tesserae characterized by deep cobalt blue, crimson, and dramatic emotional expression in the Anastasis, Crucifixion, and Washing of the Feet |
| Marble Revetments and Opus Sectile Floor | Mid-11th century (partially restored after 1881) | Lower walls clad in maroon Chian marble and green Thessalian marble; pavement inlaid with geometric marble panels |
| Byzantine Vaulted Cistern (Kinsterna) | 1042 to 1049 CE | Measuring approx. 17.4 by 10.8 meters, divided into three aisles by eight marble columns supporting fifteen brick domes to store mountain spring water |
| Monastic Refectory (Trapeza) | 11th century (repaired in the 17th century) | Barrel-vaulted rectangular hall with an eastern apse and a permanent 15.2-meter stone-and-brick communal table with side niches for tableware |
| Chapel of the Holy Cross (1822 Memorial) | Post-1822 memorial installation | Enshrines the skulls and bones of victims of the April 1822 Chios Massacre near the 1900 stone bell tower |
The dramatic court style of the Nea Moni gold mosaics under Constantine IX Monomachos. Art historians have long noted how the three UNESCO-listed Middle Byzantine mosaic cycles in Greece represent three distinct artistic temperaments: whereas Hosios Loukas reflects an austere monastic solemnity and Monastery of Daphni, Athens embodies Comnenian classical grace, the mid-eleventh-century mosaics of Nea Moni exemplify the dramatic, vividly colored imperial court style of Constantinople. The master mosaicists sent by Constantine IX set saturated cobalt blues, deep carmines, and gleaming whites against angled gold-leaf tesserae to create intense psychological expression.
In the northern conch mosaic of the Anastasis (Resurrection / Harrowing of Hell), Christ strides forward with dynamic force, His blue and gold garments billowing as He tramples the shattered gates of Hades and grasps the wrist of white-haired Adam while Eve raises her hands wrapped in a crimson mantle beside the crowned prophet-kings David and Solomon. In the Washing of the Feet (Nipter) spanning the northern wall of the Inner Narthex, the twelve Apostles sit in a rhythmic frieze displaying individualized expressions of awe, hesitation, and reverence before the kneeling Christ.
IVThe Lie of the Land
In the monastic tradition and liturgical canon of Eastern Orthodoxy, the siting and orientation of Nea Moni were not determined by East Asian geomancy, but by two sacred Christian principles: first, topographical consecration through hierophany, placing the sanctuary directly over the spot where the three hermits found the miraculous icon of the Virgin on the burning myrtle bush; and second, canonical eastward orientation (Ad orientem), aligning the longitudinal axis of the Katholikon, refectory, and chapels toward the rising sun in the East. The following reading applies the library's comparative landform framework to examine the protective mountain-valley basin of Mount Provateion on Chios.
Viewed across the macro-topography of Chios (the fifth-largest Greek island, lying just off the Ionian coast of Asia Minor) at coordinates 38.3742 degrees north, 26.0558 degrees east, Nea Moni occupies a secluded upland valley at an elevation of roughly 400 meters within the limestone massif of Mount Provateion Oros, south of the island's highest peak, Mount Pelinnaion (1,297 meters). Unlike coastal towns exposed to Arab, Turkish, or Western naval raids across the Aegean Sea, the site of Nea Moni forms a classic hidden mountain-cauldron sanctuary (concealing wind and gathering vitality within a ring of crags): steep gray-white limestone cliffs and pine-clad ridges encircle the trapezoidal compound on all sides, rendering the monastery completely invisible from the sea.
In terms of surrounding ridges, water retention, and axial alignment, the monastic precinct rests its back securely against the high rocky escarpment of Mount Provateion to the West and Northwest as its rear backing mountain (anchored at its highest northwest point by the eleventh-century defensive tower Pyrgos), while flanking spurs on the north and south curve around the valley like embracing Azure Dragon and White Tiger arms. The principal axis of the Katholikon and the medieval Refectory is aligned sit-west, face-east with a slight southeastern inclination, opening toward the narrow valley corridor that descends toward Karyes and the eastern Aegean coast. Most remarkably, beneath this arid limestone ridge flows a perennial subterranean mountain spring channeled by eleventh-century hydraulic engineers into the fifteen-domed vaulted Cistern (Kinsterna) inside the northwest wall, uniting external mountain protection with unfailing internal living water for nearly a thousand years.
VFeast of the Dormition on August 15, Commemoration of the Three Founders, and the Monastic Liturgical Cycle
Nea Moni remains a living Orthodox monastic sanctuary under the Holy Metropolis of Chios, Psara, and Oinousses of the Church of Greece. Having served as a women's convent from 1952 and subsequently been re-established as a male monastic brotherhood, the monastery continues to chant the daily Byzantine liturgical offices beneath its eleventh-century gold mosaics. Fixed feasts follow the Revised Julian Calendar of the Church of Greece (matching Gregorian calendar dates).
| Date | Calendar System | Festival / Observance | Liturgical rites and pilgrimage traditions at Nea Moni of Chios |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 15 annually | Greek Orthodox Calendar (Revised Julian / Gregorian) | Great Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos (Koimesis tis Theotokou, Patronal Feast) | The principal annual pilgrimage of Nea Moni: celebrated with an All-Night Vigil (Agrypnia) on the eve of August 14, a candlelight procession of the miraculous Icon of the Panagia Nea Moni around the courtyard, and a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on the morning of August 15. |
| March 20 annually | Greek Orthodox Calendar (Gregorian) | Feast of the Three Holy Founders Nikitas, Ioannis, and Iosif (Agioi Treis Ktitores) | Commemorates the three eleventh-century Chian ascetics who discovered the icon of the Virgin on the burning myrtle bush, prophesied to Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos, and founded Nea Moni. |
| August 23 annually | Greek Orthodox Calendar (Gregorian) | Leavetaking of the Dormition (Apodosis tis Koimiseos) and Commemoration of the Icon's Finding | Marks the ninth day after the Dormition feast and honors the miraculous finding of the monastery's icon, drawing islanders from across Chios for the blessing of loaves (Artoklasia). |
| April or May and Bright Week | Orthodox Paschalion Calendar | Holy Week, Pascha, and Memorial of the Chian Martyrs of 1822 | Holy Week services are chanted directly beneath the eleventh-century mosaics of the Washing of the Feet, Crucifixion, and Anastasis, followed by memorial prayers at the Chapel of the Holy Cross for the martyrs slain at Nea Moni in April 1822. |
| September 1 and September 14 annually | Greek Orthodox Calendar (Gregorian) | Ecclesiastical New Year (Indiction) and Universal Exaltation of the Holy Cross | September 1 marks the beginning of the Byzantine liturgical year; September 14 celebrates the patronal feast of the Chapel of the Holy Cross at the monastery gate with the distribution of sweet basil. |
Byzantine incense blended with pure Chios mastic resin. One of the most memorable sensory experiences during Vespers or the Divine Liturgy at Nea Moni is the fragrance rising from the swinging brass censers: here the monastic incense is blended with teardrops of pure Chios mastic resin (Mastiha Chiou, the aromatic resin harvested exclusively from lentisk trees in the southern Mastichochoria villages of Chios). As plumes of mastic-scented incense drift upward into the shafts of Aegean sunlight illuminating the eleventh-century gold tesserae of the eight conches, pilgrims experience the living union of the island's natural heritage and its thousand-year Byzantine spiritual legacy.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Mount Provateion Oros, Karyes, 821 00 Chios, North Aegean, Greece
- Getting there
- Nea Moni is located in the mountainous interior of central Chios, approximately 15 kilometers west of the main port town of Chios (Chora) along a scenic winding mountain road passing through the village of Karyes. Travelers can reach Chios Island by direct domestic flight from Athens International Airport (ATH) to Chios Island National Airport (JKH) in about 45 minutes, by overnight ferry from the port of Piraeus (Athens), or by a 30-minute ferry crossing from Cesme in Türkiye. From Chios town, visitors can take a taxi or rental car via Karyes in about 25 minutes to the parking area outside the monastery gate (during summer months, local KTEL buses also run scheduled routes from Chios town to Nea Moni and the medieval village of Anavatos).
- Coordinates
- 38.3742, 26.0558
Because Nea Moni is both a UNESCO World Heritage monument and a sacred Orthodox monastery, visitors must dress modestly before passing through the gate: men should wear long trousers and shirts with sleeves, and women should wear skirts below the knee with shoulders covered (complimentary wrap skirts and shawls are provided at the entrance gate). Inside the Katholikon and the 1822 Ossuary in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, please maintain quiet reverence, refrain from touching the marble revetments, and never use flash photography to protect the eleventh-century gold mosaics.
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?Quick Questions
Why is an eleventh-century monastery like Nea Moni called the New Monastery?
The name Nea Moni (New Monastery) was given in the 1040s when Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos erected a grand new imperial monastic complex over the humble chapel previously built by the three hermits Nikitas, Ioannis, and Iosif beside the burning myrtle bush where they found the icon of the Virgin; the title also echoed the famous Nea Ekklesia (New Church) inside the Great Palace of Constantinople.
How is the founding of Nea Moni connected to a prophecy delivered to an exiled Byzantine nobleman?
While the nobleman Constantine Monomachos was living in political exile on the neighboring island of Lesbos from 1035 to 1042 under Emperor Michael IV, three Chian hermits, Nikitas, Ioannis, and Iosif, sailed to Lesbos and prophesied that he would soon be recalled to Constantinople to become Emperor of the Romans. Constantine vowed that if their prophecy came true, he would build them whatever church they wished on Chios. When he married Empress Zoe and was crowned Emperor Constantine IX in June 1042, he fulfilled his vow by sending imperial architects and mosaicists from Constantinople to build Nea Moni.
How does the insular domed-octagon architecture of Nea Moni differ from Hosios Loukas and Daphni?
Unlike Hosios Loukas and Daphni on the Greek mainland, whose octagonal domes are surrounded by side aisles, corner bays, and upper galleries, the Katholikon of Nea Moni is the prototype of the insular (island) domed-octagon type: its nave is a single aisleless square room whose four flat lower walls transition directly at the upper level via eight paired colonnettes and eight concave niches (four shallow axial niches and four deep corner squinches) to support the high central dome.
Whose skulls and bones are displayed inside the Chapel of the Holy Cross at the monastery entrance?
Those are the preserved remains of the monks and more than two thousand Greek women, children, and elderly islanders who sought refuge inside Nea Moni and were slain when Ottoman forces stormed the monastery during the Chios Massacre in April 1822 during the Greek War of Independence; many of the skulls still bear visible sword and musket wounds.
Why is there no eleventh-century gold mosaic in the very top of the central dome of Nea Moni today?
On March 22 (April 3 New Style), 1881, a catastrophic magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck the island of Chios and caused the entire central dome of the Katholikon, including its crowning mosaic of Christ Pantokrator and attending angels, to collapse. While the upper dome drum was rebuilt around 1900, the magnificent eleventh-century gold mosaics in the eight conches immediately below the dome and in the inner narthex survived and were carefully conserved.