The island is mentioned since 13th century when the first monastery, Saint Nicholas Monastery, was built by Michael Philanthropinos, a Byzantine aristocrat, who along with other prominent Byzantine families, left Constantinople after the 1st Fall of the Crusaders in 1204, to settle in just established Despotate of Epirus.

[5] Though the following years were marked by the constant raids of the Albanians and the conquest of Ioannina by the Ottomans in 1430, however, they did not affect the acne of these Monasteries, that reached their peak in the 16th century.

In that particular Monastery, there was a great library, including "Kouvaras", a manuscript code containing rare texts on the area's history.

Because of the great acne, two more Monasteries were built, that of Saint Nicholas Methodius (later named Saint Eleousa), also with beautiful murals, which, in 1872 and until 1922, was operated as a priestly school, and, on the northeast side of the island, the Prodromos Monastery, built in a rare architectural style.

[6] The exceptional Late Byzantine Monasteries are seven in number, so much so that the Island is ranked as the 3rd largest monastic state in Greece, after Mount Athos and Meteora.