Built at the edge of a majestic cirque surrounded by mountains, Hosios Loukas has been built in a suitably grand setting. This Byzantine monastery is among the finest in Greece, as much in terms of its original architecture and its fabulous mosaics on gold backgrounds, as its frescoes, icons and polychrome marble pavements. It was founded by the Venerable Luke (Hosios Loukas), a hermit and Greek saint in the 10C.