The Church of Panagia Hodegetria (Our Lady of the Way) or Aphentiko is the new catholicon of Vrontochi Monastery, abutting the massive walls in the north-western part of the lower city of Mystras. It was built in around 1310 by an energetic abbot named Pachomius. According to two chysobulls painted in the southwest chapel , he managed to secure imperial grants of considerable lands in the Peloponnese and a lifetime appointment as head of the monastery.

Hodegetria is a large, imposing two-storey building that shows architectural innovation: while the upper part is a five-domed cross-in-square church with a narthex and galleries , the ground floor is a basilica divided into three naves by arched colonnades . This church type, known as the "Mystras mixed type", was used for other monuments in the vicinity (Pantanassa, Agios Demetrios). The nave is built of roughly hewn stones with occasional rows of brick, and was probably originally plastered. The east side of the building retains its original form and exhibits stylistic elements similar to those of contemporary monuments in Constantinople. The sanctuary apse and pastophoria are divided into zones with windows and blind (bricked up) arches. In the upper zone, low, flat niches with double brick arches complete the exterior decoration. The church was surrounded by porches arranged in a pi-shape, covered with hemispherical domes . The south porch was converted into a burial chapel in the 14^th century, when the openings in the ground floor were walled up and turned into burial niches. Two additional chapels were created at either end of the narthex , and a further two at ground level in the north porch . The three-storey bell tower to the south of the west portico is built of cloisonné masonry . On the outside, the upper level is separated from the ground floor by a marble cornice , and has triple-light windows adorned with brick arches. Higher up, the tower’s exterior appearance is complemented by shallow blind niches.

The interior decoration was sumptuous, combining sculpture decoration, marble revetments and wall paintings . Only a few pieces of the sculpture decoration and rare revetments have survived. The wall paintings date to different periods; some fragments are visible in the nave, along with better preserved sections in the chapels . In the main church, the frescoes dating to the 1410’s are obviously the work of painters from Constantinople. They depict an extensive Christological cycle , martyrs and saints in the side aisles, prelates and deacons in the sanctuary , and patriarchs, prophets and apostles in the galleries. The compositions in the chapels reveal the personality of Pachomius, the founder. In the so-called chrysobull chapel in the south-west, four angels are holding a mandorla around a now lost depiction of Christ, from which beams of light descend by divine hand, holding the chrysobulls of Emperors Andronicus II Palaeologus and Michael IX. Pachomius is buried in the northwest chapel, where successive rows of saints’ choruses are depicted praying to Christ; Pachomius appears on an arcosolium on the western side, offering a model of the church to Our Lady. On the north side is the tomb of Despot Theodore I Palaeologus (1384-1407). According to his burial mural, he became a monk and took the name Theodoretos.

The southeast chapel is probably dedicated to the Three Hierarchs. The decoration in it is later, and depicts the vision of Agios Ioannis Euchaita (St. John, Bishop of Euchaita), which when interpreted led to the establishment of a joint feast day for Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom. The frescoes can be dated to 1366 on the basis of the monogram above the chapel entrance, representing Cyprianus, Episcopal Vicar and Abbot. Finally, the frescoes in the south portico date to later in the 14th century; the portico served as a burial place for rulers, as is evidenced by scenes in the dome, burial paintings of a noble named Kaniotis and his wife in the west arcosolium, and of another officer on the northern wall.

Under Ottoman rule the church served as a mosque before being abandoned. In the early 19th century, columns were removed from the colonnade to be used elsewhere, while the central part of the dome and galleries collapsed.