The Byzantine monastery of Nea Moni is on the Greek island of Chios. It stands in the island’s interior, about fifteen kilometres west of the principal town of Chios, in a wooded mountain setting.
Nea Moni was founded in the eleventh century during the reign of Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and Empress Zoe. Tradition connects its foundation with three monks who discovered an icon of the Virgin Mary, although the monastery’s historical importance rests on its surviving buildings and decoration.
The katholikon is celebrated for its eleventh-century mosaics, which use gold backgrounds and sophisticated compositions to illustrate scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin. The monument is a major example of the so-called Byzantine “golden age” of mosaic art.
Nea Moni is part of the UNESCO World Heritage grouping that also includes Hosios Loukas and Daphni. A 1881 earthquake damaged the complex, but substantial portions of the church and its decoration survived.