The monastery (which is dedicated to the Assumption of Virgin Mary) is built in the opening of a large cave on the northern offshoots of the mountain range of Helmos, above the steep gorge of Vouraikos.
The cave had been explored in ancient times too and Pausanias mentions that this is where the daughters of Proetos found shelter when they were taken over by fury. In the early Christian times the cave served as a hermitage. Some say the monastery was founded by Thessalonian brothers and monks Symeon and Theodore. In the year 362 A.D. there was the miraculous discovery of the famous portrait of the Virgin in the cave.
