Monastery of Metamorphosis of Soteros (Moni Vrachas)

At the isolated, mountainous area north of the village Vracha of Evrytania, in a forest of oaks, is the historical monastery with the same name, the most important of eastern Agrafa, dedicated to Metamorphosis Sotera (*Transfiguration of Christ).

It is unknown when it was founded exactly, but its existence is confirmed from 1600-1650. It flourished a lot during the Turkish occupation and was a stauropegic monastery. In the 18th century it must have been destroyed, because, as the founding inscription at its catholicon informs us, the abbot Damaskinos and a family of pilgrims from a nearby village renovated the church in 1745. It obtained remarkable property, mainly stockbreeding, it has a library and a school, while at the same time it became a king of agronomics school for the people of the area. In the years of the revolution of 1821 it was related with the action of the hero Georgios Karaiskakis and was found at the focus of the battle that took place between his forces and the Turks in May 1824. The monastery was dissolved in 1833 and in 1929-1930 its buildings were demolished.

From the complex only the catholicon, a cross-in-square church with a narthex and exonarthex, and domes that is supported on its interior by four columns. It belongs to a variation of the Athonite type, that is it has two conches on the side walls, which are called choirs because there stood the chanters. The construction of the main church and the exonarthex seems to have been made by two different crews, in different periods.
At the interior of the church and externally at the exonarthex there are wall paintings in good condition that were completed in 1753 the first ones and in 1758 the second. They are remarkable works of folk style that are attributed to students of the school of the famous icon painter and priest monk Di8onysios from Fourna. Interesting are also the golden plated screen and the beautiful portable icons. On the west of the church they have discovered the runs of a two-storied building, which possibly housed cells and and the monastery hostel.