Lechova Monastery (Kryoneri)

On the eastern slope of Mount Vesiza, also called Titanas, at around 1,050 metres according to the Municipality of Sikyonia, the Lechova Monastery of the Dormition of the Virgin stands among black pines and firs, beside the Kryoneri stream where the Elissonas river begins. Its exact founding date is unknown; the old katholikon, a cross-in-square church with an octagonal dome, dates to the 11th–12th century, is a listed monument of the Ministry of Culture and keeps its marble floor, with geometric and symbolic patterns, in remarkably good condition.

The place was sacred long before the monastery: in the nearby Lechova cave, excavations have uncovered pottery and clay figurines from the mid-6th to the early 4th century BC. The monastery keeps the miracle-working icon of the Virgin of the Passion (Amolyntos), painted in the early 18th century by the Zakynthian iconographer Theodoros Papantonis. During the War of Independence of 1821 it sheltered fighters and local people, and it is mentioned in the memoirs of Gennaios Kolokotronis. Orchards on old stone terraces and the view over the Corinthian Gulf make it a place of rare serenity. Today it is a convent.