The Taxiarches Monastery is located a kilometer from Glossa and some people call it “The Monastery of Archangels”. The Monastery is worth visiting as it offers old and well preserved icons, and religious art. It is situated opposite the monastery of Ag Anna. Both monasteries are now abandoned. The Monastery of Taxiarches is well hidden out of sight by overgrown plane and walnut trees.
Tradition states that on the east side of the mountain, the people of Skopelos began to build the monastery of Taxiarhes, in a place called Vatos, some 200 years ago. But when the walls reached the first meter in height, the construction could not be completed! The builders would still build, but in a strange way the walls would not get any higher. As if this wasn’t enough, every night the walls would move by themselves, and would set themselves in another place that was southeast and half an hour further away. Finally the builders gave in and managed to finish the monastery on its new site, leaving the first building half finished.
The nearby mountain caves are used as goat pens and there is a spring. During the Second World War, the partisans hid British, New Zealand and Greek soldiers here in the monastery, before helping them to escape to Turkey and the Middle East.