One of the oldest and largest churches of the Byzantine era and one of the world’s pearls of Byzantine architecture, St. Nicholas Monastery is located in the south of the Mesopotam village in the outskirts of Saranda, very close to the ancient city of Finiq. The monastery is thought to have been built in 1224 or 1225. It was once enclosed by a circular wall which is today only partly preserved. Its double apse makes it unique in its genre, and some researchers have advanced the hypothesis that this was due to the monastery being used by two religious rites (Catholic and Orthodox).
It is a protected heritage site and although the church and temple building is in need of restoration, held against collapse with wooden props and scaffolding it is designated as a Cultural Monument of Albania. The Orthodox monastery was built on the walls of a much older temple. Studies conducted on the monastery, performing excavations and restoration over a period of 20 years directed by architect Reshat Gega included Hellenic stones from the 3rd-4th centuries BC, confirming the connection with the capital of the Epirote League at Finik located 3 km from the monastery.
The original openings in the temple walls have been used as either alcoves or windows by the builders of the monastery. An accompanying photograph shows such an alcove with an icon of the Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of the monastery. The temple walls contain several legendary icons including a lion, a serpent dragon with a knot in its tail, and a serpent dragon with its tail coiled around its neck and back.
The Orthodox Monastery consists of a typical Byzantine architecture, surrounded by the ruins of a former temple’s circular wall, built before the church. The exterior is constructed in bricks while the interior rooms are divided by gorgeous arches. In the monastery’s interior walls and columns, you will find spectacular floral designs as well as some beautiful mosaics depicting mostly animals and mythical creatures. Four circular roofs, built one over the other, hold the grand entrance of the church’s portico while the garden sits beautifully under the shade of century-old cypresses and olive trees. Its architecture easily places the monastery in the category of rare architectural objects and it is precisely its double apse that makes it a truly singular structure in its genre. The first renovation was undertaken in 1793 with another in 1845 while the most recent effort in protecting the church and reviving its interiors occurred in 2018. This last restoration mainly concerned the interior walls, the arches above the windows, and its roofs.