Fodor's Expert Review Kounistra Monastery

The dirt road north of Troullos leads to beaches and to the small, now deserted, Kounistra Monastery. It was built in 1655 on the spot where a monk discovered an icon of the Virgin "miraculously" dangling from a pine tree. The icon spends most of the year in the church of Trion Hierarchon, in Skiathos Town, but on November 20 the townspeople parade it to its former home for the celebration of the Presentation of the Virgin the following day. You can enter the deserted monastery church any time, though its interior has been blackened by fire and its 18th-century frescoes are difficult to see.