The St Nicholas Monastery Church is 11th century, built on the site of an earlier monastery of which some remaining walls are still standing. In turn, the monastery was itself built on an ancient site, possibly connected to the ancient city of  Phoenice (Finik) 3 km away. As I arrived at the church an old man was pushing his bike up the hill in front of me while puffing on his cigarette. He unlocked the entrance so I asked if I could take a peek inside. Through gestures and my translate app he informed me that the church was the only one like it in the Balkans. He must have been referring to the unique double apse, possibly a result of the monastery being used by both Catholic and Orthodox religions. I thought he must have been working in the church but as he locked the door when I left I think I had just been lucky to arrive when I did and get to go inside.

The interior is lovely, although disappearing, the iconostasis is rotten with woodworm and the plaster, with the remaining frescos are falling off the walls. The remnants of a mosaic floor among large slabs, some with carved patterns is also interesting and must have looked magnificent in its heyday.

But the most interesting aspect of the church are the ancient carvings on the exterior of the church, thought to be pre-christian and probably reused from an earlier structure. The images are of an eagle, lions, a dragon with a knot in its tail and a mythical, rather dog-looking, serpent dragon with its tail around its back and neck, as if it is its own lead. Lions feature heavily in the ancient world, whatever the country I’ve been through, but few people must of seen them in this part of the world, I wonder if they had the same mythic quality as the dragon to those who beheld them.