This is the very beautiful historical monastery of Faneromeni. This holy person Faneromeni (which is actually Virgin Mary) is the "protector" of the island as all greek cities and villages have their own saints as protectors. This monastery has been the shelter many times for many people during wars or just bad situtations, and it has been here for a long period of time going through some very catastrophical destructions.
The monastery is the place where every visitor in the island comes to pay respect too, no matter of religion. Many times persons of different religions than the Orthodox Christian have visited the monastery not only for its holy significance but because of the historical account as well. Also, this is the most beautiful and most quiet sight of the island. Looking down a person can see the calm blue Ionian Sea and can breathe pure fresh air.
As been said by many historic references and books not only of Greek origin but of Venetian (Italian now) as well, the monastery has suffered some disasters. At least two very strong earthquakes in old times gave the monastery (actually, just a small church in those years) a big shake and almost cut it in half. There are accounts of fire being on the site as well that burned down many icons and other equipment. In relatively recent years the monastery has gone through another big earthquake at a time where the whole island was in poor conditions. But lately, all the people of the island have tried to help to maintain it. Today the monastery has rooms for visitors to stay in, a little shop for people to get things to remember and a kind old man - Barba Apostoli to treat some greek coffee and "loukoumi" - a greek sweet popular in the islands. There is a small library with books written about the place and about the island, and of course the church which has services regurarly. Across the monastery there's a trail that leads to a church camp - reopened last summer after pausing for about 4-5 years. A lot of kids all over the island attend this church camp at summer time and gain some of their most memorable times of their lives. 
The story of how this church got the name is a unique one.
"Faneromeni" in greek means "the appeared". This name was given to "Virgin Mary"'s icon which has always been in the church for hundreds of years. When the people of the island wanted to built a church for "Virgin Mary", they asked an iconographer (person that paints icons) from "Agion Oros" (Holy Mountain located in Macedonia in Greece) to paint them a picture of Virgin Mary as it had not been before - in a portrait that would express the people of the island. The poor iconographer could not think of anything, and had a hard time coming up with the work, so he prayed to Virgin Mary. As he woke up one morning he saw an image of Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus and Angels that had appeared on the icon. He gave it back to the people and told them of the miracle, and in honor of the event they named it "Faneromeni" - the appeared. A lot of famous greek poets have praised Faneromeni in their writings, such as Aristotle Valaoritis and Angelos Sikelianos who are from Lefkada. Today, there is a beautiful poem in the entrance hall of the monastery written by Valaoritis engraved on marble stone and I believe that the reader will not ever see a poem with the same impact again in their lives maybe - only one problem, it's in Greek. But it's worth the trouble learning greek! 
As we said, this is the most quiet spot of the island. It is on a high point looking down at the rest of the island, and the people sense that "Faneromeni" is looking down on them to protect them, and that's why it was built so high.
Well, there are about 3-4 days in the year that the stretch of road to Faneromeni for about 2 miles is full of life and celebration, and that's on the date of the celebration of Faneromeni. People from around Greece come to pay tribute and take part in the celebration. Little shops are around and the place is full of life. One little sad note about the monastery is that in February of 1998 someone broke in the church and stole all the contributions that people are leaving next to the icon. Nobody could believe it, and a sense of bad luck and guilt fell upon the people, and there haven't been any suspects yet arrested. When I asked a small priest, he told me that this was a huge surprise and a sad event for the island. We wish that at least that person returns back all the stolen things because they are the hopes of the contributors and their little payback to the church.
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