- THE HOLY MONASTERY OF SAINT DEMETRIUS KARAKALAS
- Item ID : 360
- Collection Name : Holy Metropolis of Argolida
- Year : c. 17th AD
- Current Place : Arachnaio
- Description : About the antiquity of the monastery found in sigillion written by the Patriarch Gabriel D, 1782 , which it renewed its Stavropegiaki value (Depending directly to the patriarch). " Gabriel writes that “it the most ancient liberty and grace.”
Sixteen years later ( 1798 ) , a sigillion of Patriarch Gregory V repeats the renewal of the monastery s Stavropegiaki value of the monastery.
In the siege involved the abbot of Karakalas Bouchelis or Xirokasteliotis Simeon , the monk and later abbot Dionysius Bevardos and two hundred Greek- Germans friends , who after the battle of Peta " stayed in Xerocastello , in the monastery of St. Demetrios.
The offer of the monastery in the years of struggle was important because it was the Greek arsenal , as demonstrated by the large amount of munitions that were recorded in the monastery , which possessed "form in which the poured lead seals ."
When Ibrahim approached the Peloponnese and the risk was no longer visible to the revolution , the prefect Nafplio send document to the monastery and asking for," one hundred kilos of olive without immediately,” for the needs of the camp or vacation.
In 1829 , the state of the monasteries in the Peloponnese , noted that " the monastery is solid , and the temple is very old, " is real estate isn t high and that abbot Dionysius resides there with six monks fifteen employees .
In 1834, by Royal Decree of Otto the monastery maintained. It has five monks and an income of eight thousand drachmas. Since that time it has survived and a list of the shepherds who grazed their cattle on the land of the monastery , who came mainly from Arcadian mountain villages still exists.
Those allocated to the landless property of the monastery after the expropriation of the year 1928 . After liberation, life continues the monastery has s five to eight monks.
In 1934 it merged with Talantio monastery and in 1936 with the single Agnountos and Archangels . In the year 1943 the German occupiers blame the monks that treats resistance fighters , and deliver the monastery on fire , blowing up one side of the building and torture the Abbot .
Since 1936 the monastery was converted into a female and begins a new period of flowering and lasting reconstruction.
The buildings interior adorned with arches and loggias are run by +labyrinthine corridors and glued as it is next to one another close to a narrow rectangle patio. The monastery has five chapels: Agia Paraskevi, Agia Eirini Chrisovalantou, Panagia Portaitisas, Saint Nektarios and Saint Ephrem the Syrian. In the centre of the atrium was rebuilt in the year 181 the church, which was founded below the level of the passage and has the shape of the inscribed cross with a dome.
The monastery is renowned for its fortified character even today despite the renovations and additions.
The most important relics left in the monastery is part of the relic of St. Demetrios and the image of the monastery , which shows the Virgin enthroned carrying the Christ. The monastery got its name either from Xerokasteli , a castle area in Turkish Kouroukale attributed as the name Karakalas which is a paraphrase , either by the family patriarch Cyril E who came from Nauplia , and his name was Karakalas .