Description of the attraction
Moni Filerimou, or the monastery of Panagia Filerimos, is one of the most famous and interesting sights of the Greek island of Rhodes. The monastery is located just 5 km from the modern city of Ialyssos and about 15 km from the city of Rhodes among the majestic cypresses and pines on the slopes of a picturesque hill where the acropolis of ancient Ialyssos stood many centuries ago.
The monastery of Panagia Filerimos was built in the 14th century, during the reign of the Knights Hospitallers on the island, on the ruins of an old Byzantine temple. Built in an architectural style unconventional for Greek monasteries and protected by massive fortress walls, the holy monastery became home to the famous icon of the Virgin Mary brought earlier from Jerusalem, presumably the work of St. Luke the Evangelist.
In the 16th century, after a long siege, the troops of the Ottoman Empire finally managed to capture Rhodes and the knights were forced to leave the island. Leaving Rhodes, the knights took the icon with them and after a long journey to different countries (France, Italy, Malta, Russia, etc.), she found her new home and today is kept in the National Museum of Montenegro, and in the Filerimu monastery there is a copy of it. executed by an Italian artist.
During the Turkish occupation, the monastery was partially destroyed and was rebuilt by the Italians during their rule on the island. But even today you can see various structures built by the knights of St. John, including ancient chapels decorated with knight's crosses, as well as admire the beautiful floor mosaics of the Byzantine period in the church of Panagia Filerimos.
The Italians also paved the so-called "Via Crucis" or "Way of the Cross", along which on the right side there are stone altars with a relief depiction of scenes from the Passion of Christ. The road climbs to the top of the hill, where a huge concrete cross (replacing the original metal structure, installed back in 1934) rises on a superb observation deck, from which stunning panoramic views of the island open up.
