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Moundon Monastery

The Monastery of Moundon in the village of Diefha, dedicated to the memory of St. John the Baptist (Saint John the Forerunner) on August 29, is now deserted. The existing structures today are the Catholicon, the chapels, the cells, and the domed vestibule entrance. In 1574 it was renovated by the monk Iakovos Lagadiotis, and was considered the most important monastery after that of Nea Moni. Although assigned to the Late Byzantine period, the earliest patriarchal documents relate the monastery to the 16th century. Known Chians who were especially interested in its hagiography, entered the monkshood at this monastery which flourished as an important religious institution the latter years of the Turkish occupation. It maintained an impressive library with a significant parchment dated 1462 AD which was probably the last will and testament of the holy Matrona, a citizen of Chios. From the books of the monastery , we learn that the Chian priest and painter Manuel Kalaronis was entrusted with the decorating of the catholicon in 1620. He did not complete his assignment, however, because finances were depleted.

A second attempt at the hagiography decoration of the church by Neophilos Paradisis in 1622, failed. In 1730, the painter Constantine from the village of Kataraktis took over the hagiography of the Catholicon. Unfortunately, all the frescoes were destroyed in the earthquake of 1881. Those that survive today were painted by an anonymous artist in 1849, at least according to the inscription at the main entrance of the church in the interior of the Catholicon .Of special interest is the scene at the lower left area of the south wall that bears the inscription "The Life of the True Monk". The crucified monk is flanked to the left by a drawing of Hell and, to the right, on two separate levels, the world and Death. The composition is in a vivid folk style.
In 1822 the monastery was destroyed by the Turks and was later restored.