The new Voulkano monastery is the most important monastic establishment in Messenia. Located on a small plateau at the eastern flank of Mt. Eva (Agios Vasileios), it commands the Messenian plain. Although we do not know the exact date when the monastery of Theotokos Epanokastritisa was abandoned, due to its inaccessible location, the new Voulkano monastery was surely constructed by the early 18th century AD, at an hour’s distance from the old katholikon (main church). The katholikon of the new monastery was built in 1701, a date based on written sources, as well as morphological and construction criteria.

It is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary (Koimisi Theotokou) and it belongs to the the domed, two-columned cross-in-square type with three protruding, three-sided apses at the east. The dome is of the so-called “Athenian” type, with an octagonal drum made of hewn porous blocks and a porous arched geison (cornice, eave). The outer ridges are shaped as short columns topped by capitals, which support marble gutters. A tripartite narthex was built at the same time at the western side of the church, while a later columned porch was attached to the narthex’s west. The cells were not all built in the same period; the oldest ones were built in 1712. Numerous valuable relics are kept in the monastery, the holiest being the wondrous icon of Panagia Voulkaniotissa, thanks to which the monastery has been a site of pilgrimage since the 19th century.