Holy Apostles at Kato Karkasa
The church of the Holy Apostles which is located to the south of the settlement of Anatoli was the catholicon of a small, female monastic complex, from which very few ruins survive to the south of the church. The monastery of Karkasia, as it is referred to in the sources of the end of the 14th century, was the area of habitation of the scholar hieromonk, Neilos Damilas, known for his writings and his polemical activity against the pro-Western theologians of the time. The barrel-vaulted, single-nave catholicon has wall painting decoration of the 15th century. Apart from the Christological cycle with particular emphasis on the cycle of the Passions, the cycle of the life of the Apostles Peter and Paul, to whom the church is dedicated, is developed on the north wall. Special reference should be made to the –inactive today– monastery of the All-Holy Virgin Vagionea [‘of the area of the Palms’] which is located further to the south of the Holy Apostles and which was also founded by Neilos Damilas around 1400. A school operated in the monastery, since according to the typikon of the monastery, which was composed by Neilos, the nuns were taught religious studies as well as lessons in social activity. Today only its catholicon survives, a small single-nave church, which has a square narthex on its south side with a peculiar taper dome.
