1. General remarks

Sagmata monastery is one of the most important 12th-century monuments, built on the summit of Mount Sagmatio, on an altitude of 740 m. In ancient times this mountain was called Ypato, since it is recorded that a temple and a statue of Zeus Hypatos stood there. It owes its modern name possibly to its shape, which gives the impression of a saddle from a distance, or due to the previous occupation of the monks with saddle-making.

The donor of the monastery was Hosios Clemens, initially a monk in the monastery of Hosios Meletios, from where he left to settle in a scete on the summit of Sagmata. His relics as well as those of other saints are kept in the katholikon.

2. Description of the monastery

2.1. The precinct and its buildings

The monastery generally retains a trapezoid ground-plan. Four wings with cells and other auxiliary buildings surrounded a spacious court-yard, giving the impression from outside of a strong precinct. Almost in the centre of the court-yard stands the katholikon.
The monastery’s entrance, a vaulted passage (an entrance corridor), lies today in the east side of the precinct. On its south side a domed space can be identified with the door-keeper’s lodge.
However, the older entrance seems to have been opened near the west end of the south wing, communicating with a domed door-keeper’s lodge to the east.
On its other side lies a long hall, covered with groin vaults, which seems to have functioned as calefactorium (room with fire-place) or reception hall of the monastery.
Attached to the southwest corner of this building, projecting from the monastery’s precinct, there was an edifice rectangular in ground-plan, in a state of ruins, which was identified by Α. Orlandos with a tower. This probably belongs to the Ottoman period, however, its demolition in the beginnings of the century, without permission of the competent authorities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism, did not allow for its secure dating. Its position was taken by a building of larger dimensions, which was destined to shelter a meeting hall and an exhibition of items kept in the monastery.
The east end of the south wing is occupied by the refectory, built with dressed masonry. It ends to the east in a semi-hexagonal apse and is covered with a continuous vault which steps on two buttressing friezes. The kitchen or hearth occupies the place just to the west of the refectory and communicates with two small storage rooms.
In a later period a vaulted room, used as an oven, was built attached to the northeast end of the refectory.
The cells, where the monks live, are rectangular vaulted rooms of small dimensions with an entrance looking to the monastery’s court-yard. They are found mostly on the west and north wing, while isolated cells are found on the other wings, too.
Behind the two-storied cells situated on the north side of the court-yard, long vaulted rooms were built, used for storage of wine (vagenareia) or other food provisions.
A vaulted room, accessible from the outer precinct, occupies the north end of the east wing, functioning possibly as a stable. At the basement of a room from the same wing, an underground cistern was built for collecting rain-water.
Older rooms, which can be dated to the 12th -13th c., lie mostly on the south wing of the monastery and the southern areas of the west wing. Building remains of a large edifice were found recently, embedded in the east wing, probably going back to the same period.
Based on the limited use of brick stones in their wall-masonry, the rest of the areas are dated to the middle Byzantine period. Still more recent seem to be the upper storeys, which bear outer windows, such as the abbot’s hall.

2.2. The katholikon

The katholikon of Sagmata monastery, dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ, follows the classicizing tendencies that prevailed in Greece during the 12th century. It belongs to the architectural type of the complex cross-in-square church with dome, a characteristic Constantinopolitan type. To the west a four-columned lite is built and a later exonarthex.
The wall-masonry of both the church and the lite presents an exterior division into two zones. The lower parts were made with large blocks of stone, forming single crosses. In the higher parts, wall-masonry follows the cloisonné technique, constructed with middle-size dressed porous stones and brick stones. Its erection is dated to the second half of the 12th c. and, as it appears from new evidence, it was built in a single building phase.
The exterior surfaces of the katholikon are undecorated to the exception of the pilasters which hold an arch, upon which a solar clock is inscribed, highlighting the arcades of the lite. Brickwork decoration is rarely applied. On the south side, four decorative brick stones have been placed forming an elliptic ornament. Brick works fill the drum of the triple-light window on the south side of the church, forming alternating corners. Dog-tooth frets ornate only the smaller apses and arched brick frames surround its double-light windows. The rectilinear cornices are from porous, while the rest of the arches and the window drums are made of dressed porous stones.
The roofs of the main church have lost their original form due to various additions, already since 1675, and were restored in the years 1971-72. However, the dome, destroyed by the 1914 earthquake, was not restored until quite recently, between the years 2002-2004. Its drum was octagonal and crowned with a rectangular cornice. On each side one single-lobed window is opened, while on the edges semi-octagonal limestone colonettes are placed, bearing capitals similar to the cornice.
To the east the church ends in three semi-hexagonal apses among which the central one is larger. On its ventral side a triple-light window is opened with the central lobe raised, while in the prothesis and the diakonikon the windows are double-light ones.
In the interior, the tripartite sanctuary, which today is blocked with a wooden iconostasis, is fully independent from the main church and its rooms are covered with vaults.
The arms of the main church’s cross-in-square are vaulted too, while the lateral compartments are covered with spherical parts. Its four columns are marble and bear plain cubical capitals.
Almost the same ground plan of the main church is repeated in the lite. However, its dome is lower and blind and its four columns bear reused capitals.
The visitor is particularly impressed by the floors of both rooms. They are covered with mosaics and marble revetments depicting square or rectangular frames which surround geometric themes, as well animal representations, such as snakes, roosters and quadrupeds. From the original painted decoration of the katholikon only a few fragments survive with decorative motives dated to the 13th c.
The exonarthex was added in a later period and is built according to the cloisonné technique. Above its western door a stone is embedded with an inscription referring to a restoration of the church in the year 1675. In its octagonal dome drum a Post-Byzantine bell-tower is attached.
More than one dates have been proposed for the construction of the narthex, yet, its erection appears more plausible in the Post-Byzantine times.
The monastery keeps a quite remarkable collection of sculpture among which are included members of the original altar screen, such as parapet slabs, preserved almost entirely.

3. Buildings outside the monastery precinct

Among the buildings outside the monastery precinct are included:
a) The skete of Hosios Clemens, a small cave on the south slope of Sagmata, where according to the tradition he initially led his ascetic life.
b) Hosios’ vaulted tomb, which was incorporated in the interior of a modern church, replacing an earlier one, built in 1974, to the south of the precinct.
c) A single-naved church, to the south of the precinct, dedicated to Saint Nicolas. This small Post-Byzantine church has the shape of a free cross in the exterior with a semi-hexagonal apse to the east, while in the interior it forms a triconch.