The Holy Monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin (Koimesis tis Theotokou) Voulkano is considered the largest and historically the most important monastic foundation in Messenia. It has been home to a brotherhood of monks for almost thirteen centuries. Tradition has it that the first monastery, known as the Monastery of the Virgin of the Summit (Panagia tis Koryphis), was founded in 725 by iconodule monks on the summit of Mount Ithome, close to the ancient sanctuary of Zeus. The Byzantine katholikon of the old monastery is a three-aisle, vaulted-roof basilica, in which there are notable wall-paintings of 1608, works by the Moschos brothers from Nafplion. In 1625, due to difficult living conditions, the monks abandoned the first monastery and moved lower down Ithome, to the site of the present complex. The new katholikon, a cross-plan church with dome, was built in 1701. Gradually, it was surrounded by outbuildings with cells and ancillary spaces. Its interior was decorated with notable wall-paintings, which were destroyed by Ibrahim in 1825 and covered over with whitewash in 1882. During the period of Ottoman rule, the monastery enjoyed a great heyday. It was stavropegic and owned considerable property and dependencies (metochia) in Messenia, but also in Smyrna. It was a refuge for freedom-fighters in the Greek Revolution of 1821 and contributed to the Struggle with money and food. The monastery houses the miracle-working icon of the Virgin Voulkaniotissa, which is said to have been painted by Evangelist Luke, as well as the Sacred Relics of several saints of the Greek Orthodox Church.
A decade ago, conservation and restoration works were carried out in the monastery, under the supervision of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Messenia. With the donation from the Non-profit Civil Company AEGEAS, repairs and conservation interventions were made to the monastery katholikon (repair of the pointing on the exterior walls, waterproofing of the exterior walls and the tiling of the roof, removal of later plaster coatings from the interior, conservation of door and window frames, conservation and reinforcement of marble columns, laying of a marble floor in the interior), for its protection and functional upgrading.
