This large imposing church, with its chapels, cells and porticoes,buildabout twenty years after the Holy Theodoroi, is an illustration of   Pachomius endeavor to raise an impressive edifice would recall the architecture of the capital of the Empire.
The exterior, restored by professor Orlandos, is the form of a five-domes edifice. At each of the four corners rise chapels, like miniature towers; in the south corner of the west side is the restored well-proportioned belfry. Originally, the north and west sides of the church were embellished with porticoes- an architectural feature that will be encountered again at the Pantanassa. At the Aphendiko only the bases of the arches of the colonnade are preserved on the west side, whereas on the north, from which the church is now entered, a few columns, replaced in the restoration, indicate the position of the one-time-portico.
The architectural plan of interior is both interesting and individual. The ground floor is in the form of a three-naved basilica, with two colonnades of three columns each, whereas the upper register consists of the entire complex of a << tetrastyly cruciform church>> with five cupolas and a sixth crowning the narthex. This conflation of the basilica an cruciform plans had not been previously encountered outside Mystra, except in the chapel of the Katapoliani on the island of Paros.
Originally, the walls were covered with marble revetments up to the base of the colonnade of the women's gallery and in the two side naves. They must have added variety and splendor to the scene. Three small marble rectangles, respectively white, black and dark magenta in color, are still preserved on the south colonnade next to the sanctuary. A series of three successive slabs of white marble with carved decoration are also preserved above the small window in the apse of the Diaconicon.Of the small marble rectangles which surrounded the frescoes(now completely destroyed) in the two side naves and the marvelously preserved figures of the bishops in the sanctuary, only the coffers remain. An impression of the elegance of the capitals is obtained from the only remaining authentic one which crowns the first column of the south colonnade.
The frescoes in a good state of preservation include the <<Virgin Platytera>> in the apse of the sanctuary, the Ascension in the arch above the sanctuary, the partially preserved Nativity in the next arch within the cross of the dome, and the Baptism in the south arm of the cross of the dome. One the lower level the apse of the sanctuary is almost entirely covered with two series of full-length figures of bishops in a good state of preservation. The Holy community of the Apostles may be distinguished on the wall-space surrounding on of the three sanctuary windows.Pairs of figures of saints and martyrs extend across the walls of Pairs of figures of saints and martyrs extend across the walls of the two naves, on the level of the ceiling of the women's gallery.
On the north-east side of the narthex are depictions of the miracles of Christ. The tomb of the Despot Theodore II Palaeologus, who abandoned the ways of the world in order to don a monk's habit, is situated in the chapel entered through this side the narthex.
On the wall above the tomb Theodore is depicted in the dignified robes of a Despot, and right in the simple habit of a monk. The latter is one of the finest surviving Byzantine portraits. The tomb on the west side of the chapel is that of Pachomius, found and abbot of the monastery.
On the wall are traces of a fresco in which the Protosyncellus of the Peloponnese is depicted kneeling, as he offers a model of the Church of the Hodeghetria of the Virgin, who stands erect, holding the Child. Higher up, on the same side, there is a superb procession of martyrs in a remarkable state of preservation. On the same level on the other two walls groups of saints, depicted in turning movements similar to those of the martyrs, proceed in the direction of the Lord, who is represented in the apse of the east wall of the chapel.
The chapel on the opposite side of the narthex is completely dark, without a single window or aperture. Its four walls are covered from top to bottom with copies of chrysobulls, published by the Emperor and stamped with his gold seal, relating to  the constitution of the Monastery of the Vrontochion. Here were listed the estates, often reaching the proportions of entire tracts of the Peloponnese, together with the names of villages and the number of their inhabitants, which formed part of the Monastery's property. The chrysolbulls  also contained references to the fact that these estates were, thanks to tie <imperial favor>>, exempt from all taxation and independent of the authority of the local clergy. These for decrees, dated to the period 1313-22, reveal the great social significance attached to the monasteries as political and social factors in Byzantine life, particularly during the last centuries of the Empire. Four beautiful angels, which form part of a larger composition no longer existent may be discerned on the ceiling of the chapel.
A steep narrow  stairway leads to the women's gallery. On the side walls are well preserved full-length figures of the seventy apostles. Their drapery recalls that of the art of Classical Greece

On the south side of the church there is  a large sepulchral chapel. It is full of frescoes which, after being cleaned in 1969, have recovered some of the original brightness of their colors. On the walls above the tombs were once portraits, of which only two survive of the persons buried here. A very detailed representation of the Dormition of the Virgin runs round the entire chapel. the ceiling is covered with crowded depictions of scenes from the childhood of Christ.
The next small chapel was built, according to an inscription on the interior wall, by the Abbot and Protosyncellus Cyprian. It contains some well preserved figures of bishops and scenes from the life of Christ. Of these the most interesting, from the point of view of subject-matter, is the one on the part of the vault opposite the entrance. It depicts John, Bishop of Euchaita, with the three Hierarchs, the dates of whose feasts, suggested to him in a dream, were introduced into the Calendar and subsequently confirmed by the Church.
The painters who worked at the Aphetiko, and who probably came from Constantinople, have left us some of the finest frescoes of the early 14th century. The artist who worked in the women's gallery was bold and lavish in his use of color, whereas the painter of the figures of the Bishops in the sanctuary seems, for all his refinement and feeling for religious dignity, to have been more restrained. The skill of the painter who depicted the life of Christ in the narthex is apparent in the variety of movements, the elegance of the attitudes and the range of simple rather delicate colors. The <<procession of martyrs>>, with its slender idealized figures in beautifully colored garments, is strikingly characteristic example of that refined school of painting know in the history of art as << the Palaeologue renaissance>>.Ruined monastic outhouses surround the Aphentiko. The tall narrow building, once two-storied situated beside the south wall of the church, was originally the <<trapeza>>.A series of cells lined the north and west sides of the church. At the north-west angle of the peribolus rises a half-ruined tower, a fragment of the fortification system in this section on the enceinte. The tower was intended to defend the Monastery.

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