During the years of the Turkish occupation, Hydra was ecclesiastically subordinated to Aegina. After 1770, the promotion of the development of trade and mainly the growth and leapfrogging development of shipping in Hydra, resulted in Hydra being overpopulated and the wealth from Shipping flowing to the island. Thus Hydra became one of the most important islands of Greece, with the result that a few years later the seat of the Archdiocese was transferred from Aegina to Hydra.
The last Archbishop (1814 – 1833) during the Turkish rule was Gerasimos Rallis, whose house was called the Metropolis of the Archbishopric. In those years, the Metropolis was located in the current 2nd Primary School, in Agios Vasilios.
During the census of 1828, there were 52 parishes in Hydra, while during the Turkish rule there were 6 Monasteries, three for men and three for women, which still exist today. The Monastery of Panagia Faneromeni, the Monastery of the Prophet Ilias, the Monastery of Agia Eupraxia, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, the Monastery of Agios Nikolaos and the Monastery of the “Birth of the Virgin”, in Cape Zourvas.
The Monastery of “Panagia Faneromeni”, which dominates the center of the port of Hydra, with its magnificence and wealth, is witness to the special religiosity that characterized the Hydraians. The Monastery was built in the middle of the 17th century and the construction of the Church of the Dormition, the Monastery, followed the model of the post-Byzantine ecclesiastical architectural tradition. It is considered one of the oldest Monasteries of Hydra and used to be the center of the island’s religious life and a place where important decisions were made.
Today, inside the Monastery of “Our Lady of Faneromeni”, is the “Cathedral of the Dormition”, which is the Metropolis of Hydra and constitutes the Metropolitan seat of “Hydra, Spetses, Aegina, Ermionidos Troizinia” as well as the City Hall of Hydra which it still functions within the Monastery.
During the years of the Revolution, the Monastery offered a lot for the Struggle of the homeland and in its katholikon many times the legendary sailors gathered to thank the Virgin for their successes in the Struggle. In 1750 it was destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt a few years later with designs by Venetian and Genoese architects.
The Ecclesiastical and Byzantine museum of Hydra “Agios Makarios Notaras” is housed in the premises of the old cells of the Monastery, on the west side of the building facilities of the Monastery, which has been operating since 1999. In the Museum, relics of the monastery, vestments, tributes, sacred utensils, musical manuscripts, Turkish firmans, sacred icons mainly from the 18th century, the relics of Saints Constantine of Hydra and Great Martyr Eustathius and many other saints, as well as the elaborate cross from Constantinople containing Holy Wood. Among them stand out the miraculous icon of Panagia Faneromeni, Panagia of Malikis and the icon of Panagia “Rodo Amaranto”, dated around 1774.
In the courtyard you can see busts of Lazaros Kountouriotis, Andreas Miaoulis, Vasileos George I and Antonis Lignos, crafted by Dimitris Filippotis, as well as the tomb of Lazaros Kountouriotis and the monument to those who fell in the Balkan Wars.
For the establishment of the Monastery of Panagia Faneromeni we rely on tradition alone, which says that:
Where the Monastery is built today, there was a Church of Agios Charalambos. In 1643, a rich nun came from Kythnos together with an old hieromonk and founded the Church of Panagia, in the place where the Chapel of Agios Charalambos was. Later he gathered some nuns and created a women’s Monastery in the same place. When all the nuns died, then the Monastery was converted into a male Monastery.
Regarding the name of the Monastery “Panagia tis Faneromeni”, there is again the following tradition:
During the Turkish-Venetian wars for the conquest of Crete, the Turks raided Hydra and after looting it took some prisoners with them. On their journey to Crete, the Turkish ships fell into a great storm and the terrified Turks began to pray to God for their salvation. In their desperation they also urged the Hydra captives to pray. One of the Turks, during the raid on Hydra, had grabbed a wooden icon of the Virgin Mary from the Monastery and cut his tobacco on it. At that moment one of the Hydraians asked him for the icon so that he and the other captives could pray. The Turk, tradition always says, broke her in two and threw her into the sea. When the storm stopped and after a few days the ship went to Crete here in Hydra the miracle had happened. A monk found in front of the Monastery, in the sea, the two pieces of the image almost joined at the edge and carried them to the Monastery.
This is how it was called the Monastery of Panagia tis Faneromeni, as Antonios Lignos says in his History of Volume I p. 184 he also writes: “That icon in two pieces is inside a golden case. Its painting is worn and cannot be distinguished, but the cuts on the back side from the cutting of the smoke are obvious, we saw it with our own eyes”.
Here we must add that, as tradition always says, when the Hydra captives landed in Crete, and working there learned the art of shipbuilding, when they returned to Hydra, they taught it to the Hydra.
Two other beautiful Monasteries are the Monastery of “Profiti Ilias” and the Monastery of “Agia Eupraxia”, which are elevated on the mountainside with a wonderful view from Sounio to Laconia.
The Monastery of “Profiti Ilias”, is located at the highest point of the island, at an altitude of about 500 meters and was founded in 1813 by the “Kollyvades” fathers of Agiore, in the place of a monastery, which was a share of the Immaculate Conception of Panagia of Faneromeni Hydra. The Church is in the style of a basilica with a dome and was inaugurated on 21.11.1815. The Monastery has a rich library of forms and manuscripts of codices, which was especially organized in 1870 by the then abbot Ierotheos Kostopoulos and today several old portable icons are preserved in it, Pantokrator in the dome, Platytera and a wonderful wood-carved iconostasis. At the gate of the Monastery, the Prophet Elias welcomes you with open arms, looking at you from a mosaic that decorates the gate, while in the courtyard there are a cistern with drinking water, a threshing floor and stables. During the Revolution of 1821, the Monastery functioned as a prison and Kolokotronis and other chieftains were imprisoned there for a while.
The Monastery of “Agia Eupraxia” is also located at the highest point of the island, at an altitude of about 500 meters, it is stone-built, it was founded in 1819 and from the beginning it was a women’s Monastery. Her small church was built in 1829 by Father Ierotheos Dokos, who dedicated the Monastery to Agia Eupraxia. In 1939 it was declared an “autonomous” Monastery by Decree. The Monastery became famous for the obedience, philanthropy, spirituality and charity of the women who live there. Her textiles were famous.
The Monastery of Agia Triada, about 30 minutes away from the city, is built on top of the mountain, where the road built by the Demogerontia of Hydra in the 18th century ended. The construction of the Monastery is identified in 1704 with its founder, the priest Antonios Oikonomou, who left all his property to the Monastery of Agia Triada in his will in 1736. Parthenios was an abbot at the end of the 18th century and Chrysanthos Karatzas (1839- 1884), he was the one who repaired the Monastery, which had fallen into disrepair, and at the same time bought “land” around the Monastery. In the revolution of 1821 the Monastery of Agia Triada offered financial support to the struggling Greeks. In 1825, Tsamis Karatassos fortified the Monastery to repel any invasion. The Monastery complex presents the characteristics of the Orthodox type of Monastery, with the Byzantine-style Church in the middle and around it the building complexes, entrance with an arch, garden, buildings with a dining room, library, cells, guest house, etc. The icons of the church are probably hagiographed by the Hydra iconographer Karatzas.
The Monastery of Agios Nikolaos it is located about one kilometer beyond the Monastery of Agia Triado, above the bay of Limnioniza and on the height of Mount Obori. In the beginning the Monastery was for men and was part of the First Monastery of Panagia Faneromeni. Its establishment is determined around the beginning of the 18th century. The Holy Church is of Byzantine style with an octagonal dome and the sacred images of the wood-carved altarpiece, which is new, are of old and great Byzantine art, dating back to the 17th century. In the times of the Turkish occupation and after the liberation, the Monastery flourished and many brothers practiced and were graced by the protection and blessing of Agios Nikolaos. Then it was donated to the Holy Monastery, which today is a women’s Monastery, the island of Trikeri.
The Holy Monastery of the Nativity of the Virgin is located at the eastern end of the historic island of Hydra, on the barren rocky plateau of Ano Zourva, isolated, one might say, from the world. The Holy Church of the Monastery of Genesios tis Theotokos, probably built at the end of the 18th century. Older researchers speculate that the monastery was founded in 1710. The Hydrian writer Georgios Sahinis mentions that while discussing with the renovator and founder of the current women’s Holy Monastery, the spiritual elder Daniel Siakos, he was informed that the holy icon of the Virgin Mary was found in the year 1776 in a cave in the estate of Eleftherios Giannikis, who founded the Monastery. Today the Icon is in the Catholicos of the Holy Monastery and the Holy Icon has been covered with silver and gold leaf.
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