The Catholic of the Holy Monastery of Megisti Lavra is an iconic building for the history of Mount Athos, as it is the first of the great Cathedrals that were built on the peninsula, essentially inaugurating the form of the monasteries that we know today. It is also a building precisely dated to 963, a fact that is rare in Byzantine buildings, even in the most important ones. Finally, the circumstances of its foundation are largely known from the texts. Nevertheless, the building appears limited in international bibliography, mainly thanks to the studies of Pavlos Mylonas. However, until today, a monograph was missing that would analyze the entire building, its history, its influences, and its successive phases with detailed plans and images. Based on modern detailed electronic recording and photography, this work attempts to fill this gap, constituting a complete and comprehensive study of the architecture and sculpture of the building.

Four appendices follow: the first develops the decoration with Iznik tiles of the main church, the second presents a composition of the churches with columnar lintels, the third, written by Vasiliki Sythiakaki-Kritsimalli, PhD archaeologist, thoroughly develops the subject of the marble decoration of the church, and the fourth collects the churches with cylindrical drums.

The book includes an extensive summary in English and Russian.