The Monastery on Mt. Menoicheion

Over the last week or so, I’ve read and enjoyed Nikos Bakirtzis’s new book, Architecture and Sacred Landscape in Byzantium: Making Prodromos Monastery on Mount Menoikeion (2026). I don’t read as much in Byzantine history, architecture, or landscape studies as I want to which is always a bummer. As a result, I was very glad to take some time this past week to read this book and enjoy it. The focus of the book is the Prodromos Monastery on Mt. Menoikeion near Seres in Macedonia (Greece). The monastery had its origins in the 13th century, with an earlier predecessor that the founders of the current monastery, Ioannikios and his nephew Ioakeim, revived. For the next 700 years, the monastery stood as a significant and wealthy institution in the hinterland of Seres attracting wealthy patrons and visitors. In the early 20th century, its status and the community declined as it was caught up in the violence of two world wars. In 1986, however, in an effort to revitalize the abandoned site, the…