The Sosinou Monastery is located on a verdant hill between the villages of Ano and Kato Parakalamos and is dedicated to the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary. The monastery is approached via a dirt road with poor access. It is very likely that the monastery was founded during the late Byzantine times (before 1430). In its current form, it was renovated from the ground up in 1598 by Ioannis Simotas. The founders (or maybe they only contributed to the wall painting) were Ioannis and Emmanuel, the Kondarats.
The monastery's catholicon rises in the middle of the complex, which has a strong fortress character. It is a cruciform inscribed temple of Agorite architectural type, with a polygonal dome supported internally by four columns. The corner apartments are covered with ovens. The masonry of the temple is stonework in horizontal layers. The church was built in 1598 and soon after the narthex was built (between 1598 and 1601/2), while the outer narthex was probably built in 1747.
The interior of the temple is covered with frescoes. The first phase of the wall painting of the church dates back to 1601/2, and was probably done by Hionadite painters. The second mural is from 1838, the work of the painters Dimitrios and Christodoulou from Doliana. The pictorial program of both phases is the standard one. In the Sanctuary and the narthex are preserved representations of the three founders. The temple is also decorated with a wood-carved iconostasis.
On the north and south sides of the monastery there were two-story cells, while on the east and west there were three-story cells. Few of them survive today, on the southeast side, which have been repaired. The external and particularly imposing wall of the eastern side is also preserved. In the monastery there is a well/cistern, where the water from the roof of the catholicon is collected.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou