In a magical environment, on the way to Lichnos and close enough to Ypati, there is the Holy Monastery of Agathonas, σat an altitude of 553 meters, at the slope of mountain Oiti. The Monastery was built in the 14th-15th century and it’is a typical example of Byzantine style.
The tradition says that the old Monastery, in which Holy Agathonas was an ascetic and was built in the middle of the villages Lichnos and Kastania, suffered subsidence and the picture of Virgin Mary was disappearred. The picture was found in a cave full of light. Near this place, Holy Agathonas built in 14th - 15th αcentury the Monastery. Even today, residents of surrounding villages, especially those of Lichnos talk about the existence of a Monastery "in the old in the southwestern part of the village, in a place called "Paleomonastiro( Old Monastery)”. In the monastery, again according to tradition, he led his asceticism monk Agathon, sometime. In this Monastery, according to tradition, was Holy Agathonas an ascetic, but no one knows when.
The monastery, after the death of Holy Agathonas, was named “The monastery of Agathon” by the monks. During the years the Monastery suffered from disasters, such as this at the year 1822, when Dramalis (Turkish pasha) burned the church.
Many valuable artifacts and relics are saved inside the Monastery. Dozens of crosses, sacred vessels, tabernacles, holy relics, holy pictures, vestments, scripts, books were collected from temples and destroyed monasteries of the region by the Abbot Germanos Dimakos and in this way were saved from looters.
Today, except from the worship to the Holy Monastery, the visitor can also admire the unique habitat of the peacocks, pheasants, partridges, ducks and various other bird species. He can also see deer, pheasants, partridges and wild sheep in a special area, approximately 1,200 acres, which is the breeding ground of the Monastery.
He has also the possibility to visit the Museum of Natural History, that presenting the main species of fauna and flora of the National Park of Iti.
Occasionally, the monastery served several schools (pastoral, agricultural and forestry). Today the Monastery has a prey breeding ground and the Museum of Natural History. The Monastery celebrates at 6th and 15th of August.
