Theotokos Kosmosoteira

Isaac began construction of the monastery, which was meant as his residence and final resting place, sometime before 1152. The site, known as Bera (, from a Slavic word for "marsh") was then uninhabited and densely overgrown location, but the main church (katholikon) was apparently erected on the remains of an earlier, possibly ancient Roman building. It included a cistern, mill, and library, as well as a 36-bed hospital for the elderly and a bathhouse open to use by the local villagers. To support its operation and ensure its financial independence, Isaac endowed the monastery with extensive estates across Thrace. After the area became part of Greece in 1920, the katholikon was restored and reconsecrated as a church in 1940. ==Katholikon==

The main surviving structure is the large main church (katholikon), a modified cross-in-square church. The building measures and is high. On its southeastern corner, there is a brick decoration with an eagle motif. The narthex on the western side has been destroyed. Apart from the main entrance on the western side, there is a side door in the middle of the northern wall. The building shows extensive later repairs on the central apse and the prothesis, as well as the addition of four external buttresses. The roof is covered in lead sheets, as ordained by Isaac himself. The interior space is dominated by the large dome on a twelve-sided base. Through a clever architectural arrangement that hides the dome supports in the main walls of the tabernacle and on two column pairs (possibly spolia), the interior is large and spacious, an effect enhanced by the many windows piercing the dome. The main dome is surrounded by four smaller ones on the corners of the building. The 12th-century frescoes are an excellent example of the contemporary Constantinopolitan School. On the northern and southern walls are large representations of military saints, with features borrowed from Isaac's relatives of the Komnenos dynasty: his father Alexios I on the left on the northern side, and possibly his older brother Andronikos on the right; and his oldest brother John II Komnenos left and Isaac himself on the right on the southern side. Surviving frescoes include representations of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, the Pentecost, the Communion of the Apostles, the Theotokos praying, prelates and prophets, and six-winged seraphs. The cover of Isaac's tomb survives, but its original location within the church is unknown. == See also ==