Vatopedi Monastery, Orthodox monastery on Mount Athos, Greece

Vatopedi Monastery is an Orthodox monastery on the Mount Athos peninsula featuring multiple sturdy buildings with fortified walls and a stone-paved courtyard. The complex displays typical Byzantine monastic architecture with churches, monk cells, and support buildings closely grouped together.

The monastery's earliest documented mention is a 985 document signed by its first abbot, Nicholas, one of three Thracian nobles from Adrianople who rebuilt it after a Saracen raid in 862. The katholikon, frescoed in 1312 by the Macedonian School, stands on the ruins of an early Christian basilica. A 1966 fire destroyed part of the north wing, restored between 1966 and 1973.

The monastery houses seven revered icons of the Virgin Mary, with the Vimatarissa being the most honored among them. These sacred images shape the character of the churches and draw pilgrims from around the world.

Vatopedi sits on the north-eastern coast of the Athos peninsula, between Esphigmenou and Pantokrator monasteries, at the eastern end of a bay once called the Harbour of Clement. Access is by boat from Ouranoupoli, and only men may enter Mount Athos; a diamonitirion permit is required. The monastery ranks second in the Athonite hierarchy, and its feast is celebrated on 25 March by the Julian calendar, 7 April by the new style.

The library holds 1,700 manuscripts, 600 parchment codices and 25 parchment scrolls, plus a copy of Ptolemy's Geography from the 11th century whose pages measure 37 by 25 cm, with 66 text pages and 42 colour maps. The monastery also owns Lake Vistonida, granted to it in 890, a title disputed by the Greek state since the 1920s.