Porto Lagos

This metochi was dedicated to the Sts Theodore and had rights over the lake and the fish farm. The Despot of Serres, Ivan Ugles, seized the lake and gave the Monastery 120 hyperpyra* each year in lieu of its rights³⁸. In 1371 he ceded the metochi to the Monastery as well as the lake and the right to fish³⁹. In 1821 it was taken over by the Kapitan Pasha in the name of the Sultan. Subsequently the Monastery built the Church of St Nicholas, which still stands, and after the integration of the territory into the Greek State, a part of the Monastery’s rights in the fishing production of the lake was reinstated.

Related historically to this metochi are the dependencies of Aghios Georgios Kalamitsiotes and Aghios Panteleimon. Both are reported to have been in the region of Xanthi and Perithori. The former was dedicated to the Monastery in 1308 by Theodora Comnena Synacherena and to it was also attached the mountain grazing land (“planene” ) known as ‘the ox’s well’⁴⁰.

The metochi of Aghios Panteleimon came into the possession of the Monastery long before 1329. Further details of the history of these metochia are not known.

Azizaga, Kalamata ⁴¹

This was founded a little before 1800. In 1821 it was burnt down and after the Revolution certain of its buildings were restored and used as a school. The Monastery took control of it again in 1841, after a ten-year lease, and continues to own it at present. The church of the metochi stands at the edge of the village called Antikalamos (the former Azizaga, about five kilometres north of Kalamata) and is dedicated to Our Lady Esphagmeni. The inhabitants of the village refer to it as “Our Lady Vatopeda”. It is surrounded by 7.5 hectares of cultivated land, while the remaining metochi buildings have been demolished.