Panagia Pantanassa Monastery at Vagionia
The church of Panagia Pantanassa Vagionea is dedicated to the Life Giving Spring (Zoodochos Pigi ) and is located at position Vagionia in the region of eastern Ierapetra. Built in a remote rural area, full of greenhouses, it was the main temple of the Pantanassa nunnery. Today the monastery does not preserve cells or other buildings.
The small temple is the result of the addition to the single-storey cavernous temple of a small square pyramidal narthex in 1860. Inside, no frescoes are preserved, and portable icons have been moved to the parish of village Anatoli.
The monastery was founded by the monk Nilos Damillas from the Monastery of Karkassia in 1398, who became known for his anti-Catholic ideas and his fiery speeches. An important school operated here, according to Damilas' manuscripts. Like the Monastery of Karkassia, the monastery of Panagia declined relatively rapidly after Damilas' death, and its estates were transferred to the Patriarchate of Alexandria until 1870, when they returned to the parish of Anatoli.
