This monastery, dedicated to Agios Nikolaos, is located within a cave complex on the southwestern slope of Mount Arakynthos, near the village of Ellinika. It is accessible from Kefalovryso: after 1.5 hours of a difficult walk to the northeast from there, one reaches a steep ravine, above which the cave is located, at a height of about 50 m, with a view of the Aitoliko lagoon. A platform for pilgrims has been placed at the opening of the cave. The church celebrates on 6 December and on 20 May.
The monastery is located on the boundaries of the Diocese of Acheloos, being developed in a number of neighbouring caves on the western slopes of the Arakynthos mountain range. The katholikon is in the largest of the caves: a one-roomed chapel with a semicircular apse. Its location probably gives it its main epithet, which means “suspended in the air”, while the present one of “speleotis” is probably connected with the first monks who lived there. The founder was the monk Nicander (990-1005), whose name was preserved in an inscription in the large cave.
The presence of the cave-monastery indicates the existence of an important ascetic centre in the area, which flourished in the 12th century, in the second half of which the main church was given its frescoes by the monk Nikandros. The monastery is known to us from the writings of John Apokaukos (13th century), who showed a great interest in it. Moreover, a hand-written manuscript in the Christ Church college in Oxford, composed in 1172 in the monastery, indicates that the copying of manuscripts was undertaken there and therefore the presence of scholars in the monastery may be assumed.
The cave is covered in frescoes, adapted to the particularities of the area, which date to the end of the 10th -11th centuries and the beginning of the 13th century. Most are not in good condition, as parts of them are either covered with salts or by various scratchings and engravings that have completely destroyed them. To the right of the entrance, the Theotokos is preserved, standing holding a medallion with Christ. The other frescoes form a continuous zone: the representations are separated by red bands. The adjective speleotissa is also found on an inscription accompanying the depiction of the Theotokos-Platytera in the background of the large cave.
The frescoed decoration is in the ‘Cappadocian’ style, which predominated outside Cappadocia between the 9th and 14th centuries. Cappadocian or Asia Minor painters travelled to Southern Italy, at the invitation of the Greek monasteries there, following the Corinth-Patras sea route. The decoration of the cave seems to be the work of a folk artist, who employed more archaic and more contemporary models in different places.
On the eastern side of the cave there is a free-standing niche, decorated with paintings, while rock paintings are also found outside the cave, some 30 m away. For the needs of the monastery there was also a vaulted cistern to collect rainwater. To the north of the large cave and about 20 m away is a smaller cave, which was also frescoed and retains part of its decoration.
