Pyrgos of Xeropotamou Monastery

Photographer

Horlbeck, Frank R.

Date

• June 24, 1981

Summary

• This photo shows the bell tower (pyrgos) of the Xeropotamou Monastery. The tower contains several relief sculptures including two sculpted heads of the monastery's founders. The date of the foundation of the Xeropotamou monastery is unclear. Five successive founders are listed on an 18th-century lintel in the catholicon: Empress Pulcheria (5th c.), Emperors Constantine VI Porphyrogenitos and Romanos I Lecapenos (10th c.), Sultan Selim (16th c.), and Kaisarios Daponte (18th c.). Empress Pulcheria (450-457) is attributed with the original founding the monastery, but written sources also place the foundation in the 10th century by Blessed Paul Xeropotamenos who happened to be a contemporary of St. Athanasios the Athonite. The monastery recognizes both founders whose sculptures are included on the belfry. The monastery flourished until the 13th century. In subsequent centuries it received financial aid from Byzantine emperors, Serbian kings and Danubian princes, the ecumenical patriarchs and various other contributors. The buildings underwent substantial renovation since 1952. Nevertheless, the main catholicon built around 1763 by Kaisarios Daponte still stands, and it contains frescos painted in 1783.