Agion Anargyron Monastery of Kastoria: The Cultural Heritage, Its Endowment Property and the Church of Kosmas and Damianos

Abstract

Agion Anargyron Monastery is one of the cultural heritages of Kastoria, whose name was recorded in the Ottoman archival sources at first time in 1440s as one of the Christian endowments in the region. Records in the archival documents dated to the later centuries show that the monastery was the largest religious foundation in the region and endowment properties of Agion Anargyron Monastery indicate that the monastery played a significant role in the socio-economic development, seasonal labor force movements and manufacturing culture of the traditional industries of Kastoria for centuries. Also 19th and early 20th century documents in the Ottoman Archives, including a letter of the monastery’s monks and a letter of intelligence informing about a planned attack to the monastery, are valuable sources of information on the history of the religious complex and its cultural heritage. The documents in the Ottoman Archives are very important sources of information that may contribute transmitting the unknown history of the cultural heritage across generations and borders and these sources have yet to be studied in this paper to shed light on the institutional history of the cultural heritage and its contributions to the social, economic, and cultural development of the region in the Ottoman era