The Benedictine monastery of St Andrew is probably the oldest existing Benedictine monastery in these areas. According to hundreds of years of legend, it was founded in 1018 for the noble women of Rab and the recent discovery of pillars, basis and particularly capitals in the church indicates their stylistic and time collocation from the middle of the 11th century.

Although restored in the 15th and the 18th centuries, the church preserved all the characteristics of a Benedictine three-nave and three-apse basilica of the Proto-Romanesque period. Numerous interesting remnants of the church furniture, dating from this period, are preserved not only in wicker-work but also boast of a more developed ornamentation. A sign bearing the name of a priest and a builder Madi indicates the 11th century as the time of its construction. It was additionally built in the staircase that accesses the main portal.

Among the later Baroque restorations and upgrades it is important to mention a valuable wooden retable of the altar with skilfully carved figures of St. Andrew and St. Benedict. The altar painting of Our Lady and the Saints was painted by a Venetian painter A. Grapinelli in 1765. In a skilfully made stucco altar superstructure on the southern wall there is, chained in a Baroque silver brace, an Italian-Cretan icon of Our Lady with the child, which was given as a vow gift by the Reverend Mother Luchina De Dominis in 1530. The legend concerning the miraculous activities of the icon is interesting, which is why she has been endowed by numerous and rich gifts of vow. The poliptych was preserved till the 19th century, a masterpiece by Bartolomeo Vivarini, which was unfortunately sold and today it finds its place in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Among other art- works we must mention the Italian-Cretan icon representing the Mourning of Christ.

Next to the church facade, in the central axis of the picturesque architectural monastery complex, a bell-tower was erected in 1181 in pronounced Romanesque forms. The sign on its consecration names the archdeacon Kuzma as its architect in the time of nun Joanna and Bishop Andrew. In the recent restoration, during research work, the remnants of a restored custody chapel were found on the first floor of the bell-tower overarched by a cross vault. On the last floor of the bell-tower there is a functioning Gothic church bell, which was cast in 1396 by a Venetian, Vendramin.