Agios Giannis-Vasaras

North of the village of Vassaras in Laconia, a cave holds a small fortification beside the little church of Agios Ioannis, known locally as “Ai-Giannakis”. The whole complex, dating from around the 18th century, is now in rather poor condition, with the cave and chapel forming part of a half-ruined cluster of buildings that was evidently once a monastery. Its history is largely unknown. Such fortified cave monasteries and hermitages appeared across Greece, especially the Peloponnese, during the Post-Byzantine period of the 17th and 18th centuries. They served as places of worship and ascetic retreat, but also as refuges for local people, and their defensive character often reflects use by klephts and armatoloi as hideouts. This site seems to have been more a small monastery than a stronghold, though the surviving evidence is too thin for certainty.