Patmos Monastery Dependency

On the road to ancient Aptera, a stone enclosure marks the Metochi of the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian of Patmos, a Byzantine dependency of the famed island monastery. Such outposts served as rural satellites for agricultural production and retreat, their thick walls and few windows built for quiet endurance. Nearby lies Aptera itself, a city with roots reaching back through Hellenistic, classical and archaic times, its theatre and inscriptions slowly returning to light through years of excavation. The small, plain chapel within the metochi keeps the site's monastic purpose close at hand.