The Athonite monasteries feature a rich collection of well-preserved artifacts, rare books, ancient documents, and artworks of immense historical value, and Mount Athos has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1988.

The constitution also states that "all persons leading a monastic life thereon acquire Greek citizenship without further formalities, upon admission as novices or monks".

Each of the other establishments (sketes, cells, huts, retreats, and hermitages) is a dependency of one of the 20 monasteries and is assigned to the monks by a document called omologon (ομόλογον).

[12] Alexios I Komnenos, emperor from 1081 to 1118, gave Mount Athos complete autonomy from the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Bishop of Ierissos, and also exempted the monasteries from taxation.

[15] The Fourth Crusade in the 13th century brought new Roman Catholic overlords, which forced the monks to complain and ask for the intervention of Pope Innocent III until the restoration of the Byzantine Empire.

The 14th century also saw the theological conflict over the hesychasm practised on Mount Athos and defended by Gregory Palamas (Άγιος Γρηγόριος ο Παλαμάς).

[12] Serbian lords of the Nemanjić dynasty offered financial support to the monasteries of Mount Athos, while some of them also made pilgrimages and became monks there.

[21] Empress Helena, wife of the Emperor Stefan Dušan, was among the very few women allowed to visit and stay in Mount Athos, to protect her from the plague.

Serbian nobleman Antonije Bagaš, together with Nikola Radonja, bought and restored the ruined Agiou Pavlou monastery between 1355 and 1365, becoming its abbot.

[24] The time of the Serbian Empire was a prosperous period for Hilandar and of other monasteries in Mount Athos and many of them were restored and rebuilt and significantly enlarged.

[26] From the account of the Russian pilgrim Isaiah, by the end of the 15th century, monasteries in Mount Athos represented monastic communities from large and diverse parts of the Balkans.

[27] Other monasteries listed by him bear no such designations; in particular, Docheiariou, Grigoriou, Ayiou Pavlou, Ayiou Dionysiou, and Chilandariou were Serbian; Karakalou and Philotheou were Albanian; Panteleïmon was Russian; Simonopetra was Bulgarian; Great Lavra, Vatopedi, Pantokratoros and Stavronikita were Greek; and Zographou, Kastamonitou, Xeropotamou, Koutloumousiou, Xenophontos, Iviron and Protaton did not bear any designation.

In 1517, he issued a fatwa and a Hatt-i Sharif ("noble edict") that "the place, where the Holy Gospel is preached, whenever it is burned or even damaged, shall be erected again".

[29] In 1749, with the establishment of the Athonite Academy near Vatopedi monastery, the local monastic community took a leading role in the modern Greek Enlightenment movement of the 18th century.

[30] This institution offered high level education, especially under Eugenios Voulgaris, where ancient philosophy and modern physical science were taught.

[38] During the German occupation of Greece, the Epistassia formally asked Adolf Hitler to place the monastic community under his personal protection.

Hitler agreed and received the title "High Protector of the Holy Mountain" (German: Hoher Protektor des heiligen Berges) from the monks.

[39][better source needed] After the war, a Special Double Assembly passed the constitutional charter of the monastic community, which was then ratified by the Greek Parliament.

In 1953, Cora Miller, an American Fulbright Program teacher, landed briefly along with two other women, stirring up a controversy among the local monks.

The Esphigmenou monastery is particularly outspoken in this respect, having raised black flags to protest against the meeting of Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople and Pope Paul VI in 1972.

[44] After the dissolution of the Yugoslav Communist regime and Socialist Yugoslavia many presidents and prime ministers of Serbia visited Mount Athos.

[45] A 2003 resolution of the European Parliament requested the lifting of the ban on women and girls for violating "the universally recognised principle of gender equality".

[47] In 2008 a group of Greek women contravened the 1,000-year ban on females on the mount during a protest after five monasteries laid claim to 8,100 hectares (20,000 acres) of land on the nearby Chalkidiki peninsula.

About ten women jumped over the border fence and spent about 20 minutes on the monastery territory, being joined by Greek MP Litsa Ammanatidou-Paschalidou.

[50][51][52] In the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and related sanctions, in 2022 the money-laundering authority of Greece launched an investigation into the suspicious transfer of large funds from Russia to Russia-friendly monasteries and monks at Mount Athos.

[55] A pilgrim/visitor to a monastery who is accommodated in the archontariki [ru] (αρχονταρίκι) or guesthouse can have a taste of the monastic life in it by following its daily schedule: praying (services in church or in private), common dining, working (according to the duties of each monk) and rest.

[58] A skete is a community of Christian hermits following a monastic rule, allowing them to worship in comparative solitude, while also affording them a level of mutual practical support and security.

Only men are permitted to visit the territory, which is called the "Garden of Virgin Mary" (Greek: Περιβόλι της Παναγιάς, romanized: Perivoli tis Panagias) by the monks.

[61] Visitors from holy orders (Orthodox monks and clerics) must also seek written permission (evlogia[62]) from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in Istanbul.

[72] The monks strongly objected to Greece joining the Schengen Area based on fears that the EU would be able to end the centuries-old prohibition on the admittance of women.