Dafni monastery It is located very close to the capital of Greece, 11 kilometers northwest of the center of Athens, near the forest of Daphni, on the sacred path that leads to Eulesis.
It was built in the XNUMXth century AD on the same land where the temple of Daphnia Apollo which was destroyed by the Goths in 395. The Ionic columns of the old temple were reused to build the monastery. Today only one remains because the others were transferred to England by Lord Elgin.
Dafni Monastery is one of the monuments of byzantine style most important in Greece. The church has an octagonal plan, a portico or nárthex and a dome. Later a second portico and a second level were added that housed the abbot's quarters and the library.
Mosaics of this temple, based on the classical ideal, they are one of the most beautiful in all of Greece. They represent scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin and the one of the Crucifixion stands out. They were made by the best artists of the moment and the material used for it was gold among others.
Over time, the Dafni Monastery suffered many ups and downs. For example, around the year 1205 during the time of the Crusades, it was looted. Many pieces of gold were stolen and the monastery was damaged.
Othon de la Roche, Duke of Athens, donated it to the Cistercian abbey of Bellevaux. French monks turned it into a catholic church and they rebuilt the arcade, adding a wall around the monastery and making some other changes, such as the construction of a cemetery, until the Turks expelled them and handed it over to an Orthodox congregation in 1458. The cloister gradually fell into the ruin.
Between 1955 and 1957 it was restored to save it from total destruction, in 1981 an earthquake destroyed the wall and a series of graves in the cemetery.
In 1990, it was declared a World Heritage Site, along with two other temples of the same style Hosios Lukas in Delfos and Néa Moní in Chíos.