Monastery of Saint John

Crowning the hilltop above Chora on the island of Patmos, the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian was founded in 1088 after the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos granted the island to the monk Christodoulos, who built the core of the complex within a few years. Dedicated to St John the Theologian, traditionally credited with writing the Book of Revelation while exiled on Patmos, the monastery grew into one of the most important religious foundations in the Aegean.

Its fortress-like outer walls were raised as protection against pirate raids and Seljuk incursions, giving the complex the imposing, castle-like silhouette still visible from the sea today. Inside, the 11th-century katholikón (main church) preserves rare Byzantine frescoes, while the monastery's library holds more than 300 manuscripts, including dozens of early New Testament texts, alongside icons and relics kept in its treasury. Together with the town of Chora and the nearby Cave of the Apocalypse, the monastery was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.

A small community of monks still lives and worships within its walls, and the views over Chora's whitewashed rooftops and the surrounding Aegean are as memorable as the history inside. Many visitors time a stop here around a wider itinerary of the islands, and many visitors combine a day of sightseeing with a private gulet charter along the Greece coast to take in Patmos alongside its neighboring islands.