The monastic complex of Askitario, one of the oldest Christian monuments on the island, is located near Nymphes and surrounded by dense forest. It is here that Artemios Paisios, an ascetic of Epirus is said to have lived alone amid the rocks in the 5th century. The monk was killed when a boulder was detached from the rocks and crushed him. The tradition has it that his parents, after they failed to get his dead body, built the church of Christ in this position so as to become monks themselves.