Panagia tou Vrahou

Panagia tou Vrahou

Distance from the hotel: 90 km / 1 hour and 33 mins driving
The temple, in the cave-slit of a rock, of Zoodochos Pigi or Faneromeni of Panagia tou Vrachos, as the Feneates call it, is located west of the village of Tarsos in the prefecture of Corinth. Tradition says that the church of Panagia on the rock of Tarsus was founded as a fulfillment of a vow by a woman from the village of Tarsos, who was miraculously saved during the conquest of Byzantine Tarsus by Mohammed II the Conqueror in 1458. According to others, some women of Tarsus jumped from the rock alone so as not to become slaves of the Turks and so the rock of Tarsus became a second "Zalongos" which is now the temple of the Virgin. A young mother with baby in her arms to grieve her child. But the Turks were not moved at all and threw her on the rock with the baby. She, however, invoked the help of the Virgin Mary and was found at the base of each rock at 100 meters, safe and sound. Out of gratitude for her salvation, this woman formed the slit of the rock in a temple, putting some images. The church today is decorated with remarkable icons, such as the Virgin Mary, Christ, the Assumption of the Virgin, which date back to 150 years and are works of the hagiographer Asimakis Skaltzas. There is also the portable icon of the Virgin holding the baby for 200 years and more. This image has dimensions 37X29 and is painted on one-piece chipped wood. It depicts the Virgin Mary holding the divine infant from the waist up, supporting it with her right hand. A stone staircase reaches the pronaos, then on the third level is the sanctuary inside which springs a spring with holy water. To the left of the temple there is a very low entrance that leads to the sink.