Greece travel: Meteora Monasteries
Meteora, pronounced 'Meh-TEH-o-rah' (stressed syllable capitalized) comes from the verb 'meteorizo', which
means, 'to suspend in the air, which describes exactly what is seen at Meteora, one of these most visited of Greek sites.
Some (like me) could even speculate that the English word meteor arises from this root.
Situated in the westernmost part of the huge Greek nomos (province/prefecture) of Macedonia, these precipitous rock formations that project dramatically into the sky, resembling natural towers, once supported 24 monasteries.
According to geologists, the rocks were created millions of years ago by the Pinios River as it split the huge north-south Pindos range to the west from the Thessalian plain, and thus separated the Pindos from the eastern range that includes Mount Olymbos and Mount Ossa.
These grey pinnacles sit in the northwest corner of the huge plain, just
north and est of the town of Kalambaka.
If you drive through the town, approaching from the south (from Trikala) the tackiness of structures and signs along the modern road present an intense contrast with the first-glimpsed spires of rock off to the right, which appear dreamlike and surreal, especially if seen on a misty day.
The rock pillars, which number around 60, are composed of sandstone and conglomerate and stand up to 300meters/984feet high. Vultures drift among them.
Originally the access was by means of long ladders which could be withdrawn upward to thwart unwelcome guests, or by
means of baskets or nets on rope that were drawn up with winches mounted in towers high above (called 'vrizonia').
Travellers reported that the ropes were replaced only after breaking-something that gives one pause for thought. Steps were cut into the rock faces during the 1920s, and in present times a modern road makes access for visitors effortless, but rather ruins the solitude and isolation that this place had for almost a millennium. A small numbers of monks and nuns now greet visitors.
During the late 10th century, hermits lived in caves in these rocks, and later, in the 14th century, when Thessaly was invaded by Serbs and brigands also presented a threat to them, the hermits began to group together in monasteries, the first of which was founded by St. Athanasios, a monk from Mt Athos, who established the Great Meteoron Monastery together with nine other monks, choosing an almost inaccessible site for the monastery, which was financially endowed by the Orthodox Serbian conquerors of Thessaly.
Legend had it that St Athanasius flew up to the top of the rock on the back of an eagle.
One of the monks who joined the monastery was of the royal family of the Paleologi (Ioannis, in 1371), and who refused
the throne of Serbia for the monastic life in Meteora, hence encouraging some the endowments given to the monasteries,
which flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries, with frescoes and icons adorning them.
These were created by some of the finest artists of the times, including the Cretan monk Theophanes and his followers, who also contributed their works to Mt Athos. During the Turkish conquest the monasteries became asylums for refugees. It was during the reign of Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (1520-66) that Meteora reached its zenith, with 24 rocks topped with monasteries and hermitages, deriving wealth from Wallachia and Moldavia as well as from surrounding Thessaly. During their five centuries, various disputes and power struggles arose over precedence among the monasteries.
Their decline was well advanced by the 18th century, refledting the general decline in monasticism all over
Greece, and due also to disintegrating buildings which had not been built to withstand long occupation and weathering.
An additional factor was the depopulation of the monasteries with the establishment of the new Greek nation to the south. As Thessaly was not included within the boundaries of the new state (becoming a part of it only in 1878), the position of the monasteries as a center of Greek nationalism and resistance to Turkish rule became something of the past.
After the 'Katastrofi' (Catastrophe) of 1922, with the compulsory exchange of Christian and Moslem populations, some monastic lands were appropriated by the Greek government for the settlement of the numerous Asia Minor refugees pouring into Greece, and by the 1950s only five active monasteries remained, with a handful of monks maintaining them. Additionally, and unfortunately, despite a revival of interest in living there among young monks of a few decades ago, tourism, helped along by films that used Meteora as a setting, eliminated any chance of the rebirth of flourishing monastic communites in this very unique site, though two monasteries continue as religious communities: Aghias Triadhos and Aghiou Stefanou. The JAMES BOND movie FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was filmed there.
The Great Meteoron, which is built on a rock named 'Platis Lithos' (Broad Rock), had its privileges guaranteed in
1362 by the Serbian emporer and his son, who became the resident monk Ioasaph, who paid to reconstruct the Katholikon in
1387-88. His apse and sanctuary, decorated with painting during the last years of the 15th century, form the eastern
extension of the existing church, which was enlarged after an earthquake in 1544, built in the form of a Greek cross
with a dome set on a drum.
On the north side of the church is the Refectory, built 1577, with a vaulted roof supported by five pillars. The monastery is looked after by a few monks of the order of St Basil (Vasil) and houses a fine collection of 9th century manuscripts and ikons, which are displayed in the old refectory.
Along the path that leads to the monastery of Varlaam, there is a fine view of the adjacent rock where two painted
ikons and broken sections of ladders can be seen-ladders which once led to the Ypselotera, or highest of the
monasteries, actually a convent founded around 1390 and which vanished during the 17th century. It is conjectured by
some that the perilousness of the ascent explains its demise.
About half an hour north of the Broad Rock is the little visited Ypapanti, which, though ruined, is worth seeing. It sits in a huge cavern and has brightly painted frescoes and a gilded ikonostasis. Nearby, and inaccessible is Aghios Dhimitrios which sits on top of a rock, destroyed in 1809 by the Turks after having served as the center for a band of local klephts (literally, 'thieves', but the word usually refers to freedom fighters of the guerilla type who, in Greece, usually hid out in mountain strongholds).
Varlaam/Barlaam (the letter 'B' in Greek pronounced like a Latin 'V'), is reached via a bridge from the road. The old windlass and rope in its tower (erected in 1536) were used in 1961-63 when the refectory was rebuilt as a museum to house treasures from the monasteries. The founders, in 1517, Nektarious and Thophanes Asparas of Ioannina, chose a site where an anchorite name Varlaam had built a church in the 14th century which was dedicated to the Three Hierarchs and restored it. Repaired and frescoed in 1627-37 as a side chapel of the Katholikon built in 1542-4, it is a good example of the late Byzantine style with a carved and gilded ikonostasis and frescoes (in the narthex; 1566) .
Rousanou (above) along
the road's main fork, is a small monastery on a low hill, reached via bridges built in 1868, but founded before 1545 by
Maximos and Ioasaph of Ioannina. It had deteriorated so much by 1614, that it was made subject to Varlaam, and in recent
times has become a nuns' convent. It's church has an octagonal dome, and is a smaller version of the one at Varlaam,
with frescoes from 1560, restored in the 1870s.
The monastery of Aghia Triadha (the Holy Trinity), is on an isolated pinnacle between two ravines, and entered by 130 steps which are partly inside a tunnel in the rock. A round chapel off of the passage leading into the courtyard was dedicated to St. John the Baptist in 1682. There are buildings here in half-timbered style and also a garden. The Moni Aghiou Stefanou or nunnery of St. Stefan, is the longest distance from the road of all the monasteries at Meteora, but is also the only one visible from Kalambaka. Its access is easy, via a bridge that leads from and to Kuklioli hill. This convent was founded in 1400 by Antonios Cantacuzene (probably a son of Nikeforos II of Ipiros) whose portrait in the original Katholikon was defaced during the Greek civil war. The New Katholikon, rebuilt in 1798. has as its chief relic the head of the martyr Haralambos.
The grassy meadows between the monastery rocks are an aspect of Meteora also well worth exploring, some of them reachable by secret doors that only the locals know about.
Visit Meteora by luxury coach tour, car rental or by private Oracle Tour below!
Your Oracle tour can combine Meteora with Delphi & the Monastery of Ossios Lukas as well as many other places of nautural beauty close by incliding Macedonia, Mt. Pelion, Epirus and coast of the Ionian shore and Lefkada.
Here are a few of the other Oracle Greece Taxi or Bus touring destinations you may choose from
Athens,
Cape Sounion, Ancient Corinth, Delphi & Ossios Lukas, Drama, Florina, Greneva, Chalkidiki, Imathia, Kastoria, Kavala, Kozani, Meteora, Mt. Athos, Mycenaea, Naufplion, Olympia, Pella and Vergina, Phillipi & Kavala, Dion & Mt Olympus, Sparta & Mystras, The Mani and Monemvasia, Thessaloniki,
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