It is the most important monastery of all on the island in the lake of Ioannina.
It was named after the noble family of the Philantropenoi who settled in Ioannina from Constantinople, after its seize in 1204.
The church is built according to the architectural style of the single-aisled church with a barrel-vaulted roof and exonartheces on the northern, western and southern sides.
It is not known when the katholikon was originally built, but, according to an inscription, it was restored by Michael Philanthropenos in 1291. The interior is covered with “wonderful” wall paintings of the 16th century, executed in three different phases.
The wall paintings, which are the work of anonymous painters, impress with its plethora of representations and are considered “masterpieces” of post-Byzantine painting. The wealth of representations and the quality of the painting make a “unique” total.
What is of particular interest is the representation of the ancient Greek philosophers, who are painted on the wall of the southern paranarthex.
Only the ruins of the altar and a complex of cells are still preserved today.
