Church of Agios Nektarios and Monastery of the Holy Trinity, Aegina

The saint we had never heard of, and the biggest church in Greece

Halfway along the road between Aegina town and the Temple of Aphaia there is a bend where, all of a sudden, a dome appears that is completely out of proportion with the landscape: white, enormous, with two bell towers at the sides and a central body that owes more to a Roman basilica than to an Orthodox church. This is Agios Nektarios, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the Balkans and, without question, the most visited religious monument in the Saronic Gulf.

If you turn up on a Sunday, or on 9 November (the saint’s feast day), parking within a kilometre is an achievement. If you go on a Tuesday at eleven in the morning, the odds are you will be almost alone among the frescoes. That contrast describes the place better than anything else: it is a site of mass pilgrimage for the Greek and Slavic diaspora, with numbers that rival Tinos or Mount Athos.

Who was Nektarios, and why do so many people come?

Nektarios of Aegina (Anastasios Kefalas, 1846-1920) was a Greek bishop born in Thrace, trained in Alexandria and brought down by church politics. He spent the last decades of his life on Aegina, where he founded the Monastery of the Holy Trinity and served as confessor to the nuns. He died poor and forgotten in a hospital in Athens. Thirty years later the stories of miracles began: healings, apparitions, flower-scented myrrh seeping from his tomb. The Orthodox Church of Constantinople canonised him in 1961, which makes him one of the most recent Christian saints in the Orthodox calendar and, for whatever reason, one of the most popular.

In Orthodox terms, Nektarios is the saint “who listens”. Parents of sick children pray to him, as do couples who cannot conceive and people with cancer. The side walls of the church are covered in silver votive offerings (small plaques shaped like an arm, a heart, an eye, a baby) hung there by the devout when a prayer has been answered. Running your hand over them is one of those points of cultural friction that most Western visitors do not understand, but that means a great deal here.

What you actually visit

The complex has two parts:

The new church (the large one with the dome): built between 1973 and 1994, modelled on Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Inside it is astonishingly plain for an Orthodox church: a lot of white marble, a carved iconostasis, modern mosaics. This is where the big liturgies are held.
The old monastery (next door, further up the hill): where Nektarios lived and died. This is the part with real atmosphere. It includes the saint’s cell with his personal belongings (cassock, books, sandals), a small church with his tomb (the epicentre of the pilgrimage) and an inner courtyard with cypress trees. The nuns still live there: you pass them in silence, and no photographs are taken in the private areas.

Pain points and how to behave

Dress code, no exceptions: shoulders and knees covered for everyone, women in a long skirt (they lend them free of charge at the entrance if you have not brought one). Without this you do not get in.
Complete silence inside the buildings. This is not a rule for tourists’ benefit: there are people praying, crying, leaving offerings. It is not a place for filming TikToks.
Photos yes outside and in the main nave, but not in the saint’s cell or beside the tomb. There are signs.
No shade between the car parks and the entrance: bring a hat in summer.
Cafe and toilets at the entrance, a welcome exception on Aegina.

Getting there and how long you need

The bus from Aegina town to Agia Marina stops right at the gate (the “Agios Nektarios” stop). It runs every 1 to 2 hours, takes 20 minutes and costs 2-3€. A taxi is 12€ one way from the port. If you drive, there is free parking opposite.

Allow 45 minutes to an hour for the visit. Always combine it with Paleochora, which is literally on the other side of the road: the pairing works perfectly and gets “spiritual Aegina” done in one go. If you have half a day, add the Temple of Aphaia as well and drop down to Agia Marina for lunch.

Even if you are not a believer, it is worth going in. This is one of the few places in touristic Greece where religion is still something living rather than a stage set. That, on its own, makes it an honest visit.