Ossios Loukas Monastery

(Local Name: Óssios Loukás / Hosios Loukas) The monastery of Óssios Loukás occupies an isolated situation in the Helikon range near the Gulf of Corinth. It is reached on a road (13km/ 8mi) which runs south from the Livadiá-Delphi road by way of the village of Dístomo (rebuilt after its destruction during the World War II). Its mosaics rank along with those of Dafní, near Athens, and the Néa Moní on Chios as the finest examples of 11th century mosaic art.

This St Luke - Óssios Loukás, as distinct from Áyios Loukás, the Evangelist - was born about 898 in Kastoriá, the village now known as Kastrí on the site of Delphi, and lived from about 910 as a hermit in Phocis, where he died, much revered, on February seventh 953. Between 941 and 944 the Byzantine governor of the region built a chapel dedicated to St Barbara at his hermitage. Round this developed the monastery which now dominates its lonely surroundings with its two magnificent churches standing side by side.

In the monastic buildings, which include the monks' refectory (trápeza), there is a small cafe (near the entrance, on the left).