Build in the 15th century(1428), by John Phrangopoulos, the Pantanassa was the last edifice to be raised during the Despotate, and it provides an example of a harmonious conflation of the various styles of church architecture fashionable at Mystra into a single unity.
Architecturally, the Pantanassa resembles the Aphendiko and the Metropolis: basilica type below, cruciform with domes on the upper storey.
Two porticoes, one (preserved intact) overlooking the valley of the Eurotas, another outside the narthex, and of which only traces of the base of the wall survive, provided a felicitous harmony to the church's numerous architectural volumes. These porticoes, a popular feature of ecclesiastical architecture at Mystra, although of Constantipolitan origin, were adapted with such a sound sense of both calculation and fantasy to the difficulties inherent in the configuration of the ground that they succeeded, in conformity with the space available, in achieving a most original and aesthetically satisfying equipoise to the various architectural volumes.
In the north-west corner a superb four-storied belfry with foundations in the court, and whose lowest storey contains a chapel .surmounts the whole complex of buildings.
The two upper stories of the belfry have large pointed arches of Gothic influence with <<tympana>> decorated with threefold apertures on all four sides. Unmistakable indicators of Western artistic influences are apparent in whole construction; the melon shaped cupola the turrets on the summit, the small windows with a cupola trefoil design above the colonnade.
Different artistic styles are also evident in the expert and lavish exterior decoration of the sanctuary, which is divided into three zones. The upper zone, embellished with brickwork decoration,is indeed completely Byzantine. if not Constantinopolitan, in style;The middle one, late Gothic in style, is decorated with small pointed arches and stone-wrought garlands adorned with blooms; the lower one is plain and unadorned.
The church which, apart from the dome, has remained intact, unharmed by the ravages of time, possesses frescoes in a relatively good state of preservation.
From the women's gallery upwards, the paintings are of the Byzantine period, contemporary with the actual foundation of the church. The most characteristic works are the << Virgin Platytera>> in the sanctuary and, on a higher level the Ascension which spreads across the entire vault of the sanctuary. In the curved expanse of the east arm of the cross which circumscribes the base of the dome are depicted the Entry to Jerusalem and the Descent into Hell, which is in a women's gallery are representations of the Annunciation on the left, the Nativity on the right.
The Presentation in the Temple and a somewhat damaged Baptism spread across the west vault near the narthex. In the north vault are depictions of the Transfiguration and the Raising of Lazarus. The little domes and walls of the women's gallery are decorated with fairly well preserved figures of prophets.
The frescoes on the upper register are the last representative works of Byzantine art, which, although << now approaching its twilight>> , still possessed sufficiently dynamic potentialities to << create new styles>> and raise <<pretty little Churches>>. These frescoes are distinguished by a wide range of lavish colour - combinations unique in Byzantine art, by the number of figures depicted in the compositions, by the crowded architectural detail with numerous edifices filling in the background of the various scenes, and, above by a tendency to reproduce a human form which corresponded physically to the setting in which it was placed.
On the south side of the narthex is the tomb of Manuel Hadzikis, a Byzantine notable of Mystra, who is depicted on the wall in an attitude of prayer.
Tradition has it that the bones of Theodora Tocco, first wife of Constantine Palaelogous, were lain in the Pantanassa. On the other hand, the historian Phratzis records that her mortal remains were buried in 1429 in the Monastery of the Life-Giver, that is to say, St. Sophia.
The hospitable nuns of the Pantanassa, who charm the visitors with their civility and kindness, are the last remaining inhabitants of the ruined city, destined to play the dual role of survivors and guardians of the Byzantine tradition.

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