The Kypinas Monastery was built in 1212 in a unique location and dedicated to the Dormition of the Virgin. It was so-named because of the gardens (‘kypous’) cultivated by the monks near the monastery. It is one of the most impressive monasteries in Epirus as it was built in a gap halfway up the face of a massive cliff. The road stops at the base of the cliff and a path carved out of the rock leads up to a wooden bridge and the entrance to the monastery. During the Turkish Occupation, the wooden bridge was movable and the monks raised it with pulleys to keep raiders out. When threatened , the inhabitants of the nearby villages fled for protection to the monastery’s ante-temple, into a cave 240 meters deep . The cave was explored by the speleologist Anna Petroheilou in 1956, but is not open to visitors.
