International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

Phaidon Hadjiantoniou
Kalamaria, Greece; 
[e-mail]
The Aqueducts of Pantokratoros Monastery on Mount Athos
Founded in the mid 14
th
century by Alexius and John, Byzantine high officials related by blood 
to the imperial Palaeologan family, Pantokratoros Monastery was extended in the late 15
th
and the 
first decades of the 16
th
century with the sponsoring of Romanian rulers. 
The big stone-built aqueduct transported water from the heights of Mount Tsouknidi, 
northwest of the monastery. The aqueduct is composed of a two tire arcade with a channel on 
the top that reached serpentine the base of the defensive tower, in which there was a reservoir for 
collecting water. A 14
th
century founders’ work is thought to be the lower part with the high arches. 
A marble inscription built in the northern part of the west wing refers to an extensive repair of the 
aqueduct made in 1537. This repair probably includes both the addition of the upper arcade, as well 
as the construction of two tanks found on the ground floor of the west wing, and an advanced water 
diversion system in different places of the monastery through underground stone vaulted pipelines. 
An extension of the original aqueduct with a branch to the west dates in 1780. This is a lower 
arched stone-built aqueduct that brought water to the west of the monastery, to the kellion St. 
Tryphon, and from there to the fertile gardens spread out along the banks of the river Chrysorraris. 
In the archive of Pantokratoros Monastery is kept the contract between the manufacturer Andronis 
and the monastery, from which we acquire the information that the project would cost 330 piastres. 
The monastery would provide the contractor oil, kourasani, and fagoura, the rest (materials, wages, 
costs of transport, road opening) being the latter’s obligation.