Hilandar Monastery
Hilandar Monastery is one of the 20 self-governing Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos. It is also the only Serbian Orthodox monastery on the peninsula. It is ranked fourth in the Athonite, the hierarchical order of the twenty monasteries on Mount Athos.
About this building
The monastery was founded in 1198 by St Sava (patron saint of Serbia) and St Simeon. After the Turk invasion of Greece, most of the monasteries in mount Athos continued operating as independent communities. The Hilandar monastery remained a symbol of the Serbs, their culture and religion.
Hilandar is still home to a religious community of Serbian monks. It treasures more than 1,000 Byzantine and Serbian icons from the 13th to the 18th century.Particularly noteworthy among them is the Theotokos "Of the Three Hands", an icon of a three-handed Virgin.
