Fodor's Expert Review Ayios Neophytos Monastery

In 1159 the hermit and scholar Neophytos settled at what's now referred to as the Ayios Neophytos Monastery, carving a home for himself out of the rock. Known in his time as the leading critic of Richard the Lionheart and the Byzantine tax collectors, today he is best known for what became a series of grottoes hewn from the hillside rock and the evocative religious frescoes—some actually painted by Neophytos—they contain. The monastery itself, with no more than a half-dozen or so monks, is situated below the grottoes.