Monastery Mele
Monastery Mele is located at about 800 meters away from the village Artemisia on the road Kalamata– Sparta.
The Monastery Mele or of Timios Prodromos that celebrates on August 29th in Beheading of precious head of John the Baptist, took its name from the nearby medieval fortress of Palaeologus .
Today in the monastery Mele, which has recently been restored by the Archaeological Service, there is still an important part of the fortress and of the central temple that has the regular architectural style of the cruciform domed narthex.
The Monastery Mele is estimated to be built in the 17th century as the frescoes date back to the second half of the 17th century and experts also estimate that is a copy of those in the church of the Monastery of Mardaki.
The most famous information for the Monastery Mele is the function of the Great School of the Nation of Morias since 1712 until the early 19th century. Educated people of that time taught there and fighters of the revolution of 1821 as Nikitaras and Anagnostaras studied there. Since 1854 until 1902, the tradition of the Monastery Mele was continued by the national benefactor Petros Dimakis, who financed the operation of a mutual teaching school, Dimakeia Institutes.
