Monastery of Panagia Nikous

The Monastery of Panagia Nikous is at a short distance outside the capital of the island. The monastery took its name from the Byzantine Virgin "Nikopoios" and it is built, like other churches of the island, on the ruins of an ancient temple. The Katholikon, the only part of the monastery that you can see till nowadays, housed the Great School during the Turkish occupation shortly before 1821. A legend says that during the years of the Fall of Constantinople the famous image of the Virgin Nikopoios was stolen by Venetians conquerors and was taken to San Marco in Venice where it is kept until today.