The Monastery of Nativity of Holy Mary is located in Paliouri in the Kourentochoria region, near the village of Klimatia and is approached from the Ioannina-Igoumenitsa national road.
The catholikon of the Monastery is a three-aisled basilica that is covered with furnaces. According to tradition, it was founded in 1373 by the Serbian ruler of Ioannina, Thomas Preliubovic, and was re-founded in 1688-90 by Papanastasis Alexiou from Zitsa. According to an inscription, the catholicon was destroyed by Albanians in 1782 and rebuilt in 1786 by the provost of Zagori Ioannoutsos Karamesinis and Dimitrios Athanasios. The Monastery was probably renovated in 1742.
The interior of the church is decorated with frescoes from 1833, the work of the Ioannina painters Theodosios and his son Konstantinos. The west side of the catholicon has no frescoes, while the fresco of Christ in the north is the work of the Painter Dionysios Zoukis from Kalarrites. The church preserves icons from 1678 (the work of Emmanuel Tzane) and the 18th century, as well as a bronze engraving of the Virgin Mary of the Cypriot Kykkos Monastery. The monastery celebrates on September 8, the day that commemorates the Nativity of the Virgin.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou