The Holy Monastery of Hosios Meletios on Mount Pastra of Kithairon, is one of the most important monasterial complexes in Greece. Its history is interwoven with the activity of the Blessed Meletios the Young, the reformer of ascetic life in Greece, who in the late eleventh century came to the region and founded the monastery, as well as at least 22 dependent hermitages (paralauria) in the wider area. The monastery katholikon is of composite four-column cross-in-square type with dome and narthex. It is dated to the twelfth century and was most probably built on top of an earlier church. Only a few fragments of its original decoration survive. Most of the preserved wall-paintings date to the third quarter of the sixteenth century. The crypt with the Holy Skull of Hosios Meletios is located in the north part of the katholikon. Attached to its southwest side is the chapel (parekklesion) of the Taxiarchs (12th century). The enclosure wall of the monastery is formed by the wings with the cells, the north one of which is dated to Post-Byzantine times. The refectory is also dated to the same period. The monastery acquired great fame, became stavropegic and flourished until the sixteenth century, when it was also renovated by the Metropolitan of Athens Nikanor.
In the course of the centuries, the monastery suffered many destructions due to attacks and pillaging. After the Greek Revolution it fell into decline and in 1883 it became a dependency (metochi) of the Phaneromeni Monastery on Salamis. It was reconstituted in 1928 and since 1950 has been functioning as a convent, today a popular place of pilgrimage. The donations of the Non-profit Civil Company AEGEAS have contributed to the conservation of the monastery buildings, which were badly damaged, and to the rehabilitation of its courtyard.
