The monastery of Kleista. The monastery of Kleista is located 20 km to the north of Athens, on Mount Parnes, just outside the settlement of Chasia. Its name is associated with the mountainous massifs surrounding it (Kleista=closed, surrounded). The establishment of the monastery should be placed at sometime during the Byzantine era. The monastery’s catholicon, a domed, twocolumned structure of the cross-in-square type, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary; its construction dates from the 17th century. A single-aisled, cross-insquare chapel is attached to the northern wall of the catholicon. The temple’s Post-Byzantine wallpaintings were revealed during the first half of the 20th century, when the monastery of Kleista was converted to a convent.