Vlatades Monastery was founded by the brothers Dorotheus and Markus Vlatadon, who were students of Gregory Palamas, in the latter half of the fourteenth century. It was first mention in a letter by Patriarch Matthew dated in 1400 to Metropolitan Gabriel of Thessalonica.
In 1387, Thessalonica and the monastery were occupied for the first time by the Ottoman Turks. While the monastic community held together, the monastery properties were sequestrated as royal property and the main church was converted into a mosque with the frescoes of its interior plastered cover. During the Turkish occupation a unit of Turkish troops, commanded by a cavus, was billeted at the monastery giving rise to the name Cavus Monastir, still often popularly applied to the monastery.
During the latter part of the sixteenth and most of the seventeenth centuries the condition of the Monastery of Vlatadon and its dependencies deteriorated. While supported by a succession of Patriarchs of Constantinople, the monks of the Monastery of Vlatadon attempted to recover and restructure their dependencies in Thessalonica.
By the mid-twentieth century the monastery became a meeting place for scholars and academics of the city. In 1965, the Patriarchal Institute for Patristic Studies was established that has worked closely with the Aristotelean University of Thessalonica. In recent years the Monastery of the Vlatades has been further renovated and expanded.
References:The Walls of Constantinople are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great. With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity, and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. They were also the largest and strongest fortification in both the ancient and medieval world.
Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger.