The Catholic Church of the Holy Monastery of Megisti Lavra is an emblematic building for the history of Mount Athos, as it is the first of the large Catholic churches built on the peninsula, essentially inaugurating the form of monasteries that we know today in the history of Mount Athos. It is a building precisely dated to 963, a rarity among middle Byzantine structures, even the most significant ones. The circumstances of its founding are largely known from texts. The building appears limitedly in the international literature, mainly thanks to the studies of Pavlos Milonas. However, until today, there has been a lack of a monograph analyzing the entirety of the building, its history, influences, and successive phases with detailed plans and images. Based on modern detailed electronic mapping and photography, this work attempts to fill this gap, providing a complete and thorough study of the architecture and sculpture of the building.

It includes four appendices: the first develops the decoration with İznik tiles of the main church, the second presents a constitution of the churches with column-supported narthexes, the third, written by Vasiliki Sythiakaki-Kritsimalli, PhD archaeologist, thoroughly develops the topic of the marble decoration of the church, and the fourth collects churches with cylindrical drums.

The book includes an extensive summary in English and Russian.