Meteora

Meteora is becoming more common with American tourists and is well known by Europeans.  The Greek word Meteora means “suspended in air.”  Meteora is famous for its rock formations and for the monasteries on top of some of those formations.  At one time there were 24 or so Byzantine Monasteries in the area, today there are 6 that are open for visitors with most being inhabited by a small number of monks and nuns. It is much easier to get up to the monasteries today, but that is a relative term there.  You will do a lot of stairs of varying quality and height.

We read that the most probable account of the formation of the sandstone rocks of Meteora was from erosion of an ancient lake bed that was drained into the sea following earthquakes.  It is an amazing site. At the end of this post, is a very short 3rd party drone video of the area that I encourage you to watch.  

Note the line of people ascending the stairway

Look closely and you will find 4 of the Monasteries

The monks chose these remote locations to live an isolated life.  Access was limited to a lift as shown below.   Today stairways and bridges have been built for the thousands of tourists that visit daily.   At the end of the blog is a copy of short documentary from the 1920s depicting the life of the monks and the use of the net.

The hook holds a net, that lifts people and supplies from the ground far below

The wood pole in the center of the room would have four horizontal posts for monks to push while walking in a circle to hoist people and things up.

Looking up at net (circled) used to raise/lower people and things

Based on good advice, our plan was to split our visits across two days and arrive early for the most popular sites.   The hotel allowed us to pack some breakfast food before it opened and we repeated the mountainous road to Kalambaka.  It turned out to be a smart move as the crowds grew as the day went on.

Our first stop The Great Meteoron Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior was the first Monastery here when it was founded in the mid 14 century.  It is also the largest of the Monasteries.  It towers over you as you approach.  The stairways leading up to it appear daunting and will leave you catching your breath.  The view at the top is spectacular.   The tour includes several chapels adorned with Frescos.   You don’t have access to the living quarters, but you see some rooms depicting how the monks lived not too long ago.   A museum has been established to displayed the many national and religious heirlooms.  Photography was not allowed in the Chapels or Museum areas.

Kitchen as it would have appeared back in the day

Monastery of Varlaamj was built a couple decades later by a single monk, but it was then left unoccupied for two hundred years.   It was then rebuilt and adorned with Frescos by several famous artists.  The addition of a bridge made it very assessable for us.

One of the few religious heirlooms we could photograph

Holy Monastery of Rousanos has experienced several start overs.  First founded in the mid 14th century, it didn’t take its present form until the mid 16th century.  It was known as a refuge for persecuted individuals and families.  It declined in the 19th century and it later became a nunnery with the patron  of Saint Barbara in1980 after its restoration was complete. The monastery is 3 floors that occupy the entire plateau.   While it has some nice modern bridges to traverse the gap, their are lots of stairs to get to the bridge. 

Steps and more steps

Great view of the garden below where the bridge is

Monastery of Saint Nicholas Anapavsa Meteora has a similar start, but was abandoned in ~1910 and restored in the 1960s.   It was our fourth stop for the day.   Maybe that was it or the heat, but those steps were rough.  It is at a slightly lower altitude and has the best view of the valley below and the town of Kalambaka.  

Saint Nicholas Monastery in the middle of the 3 lined up together.

Saint Nicholas Monastery in distance

Ruins from a former Monatery

Day 2 started with the Agios Stefan’s nunnery.  It’s the newest having most of its building constructed in the 17th and 18th century.   The new church (1798) was unadorned when nuns inhabited it in 1961.  In 1980, they adorned the new church with Frescos.   The Frescos in the other monasteries were very dark from age other than a set of three small restoration tests.   These Frescos were bright in color similar to the prior small tests we had scene.  

women had to have their shoulders covered, their knees covered and if wearing pants still had to wear a scarf they gave you to cover the hips to meet their conservative values

Our final stop was the Monastery of the Holy Trinity at Meteora which was the smallest we visited.  It didn’t even have a gift shop.

Each Monastery display a long board.  It wasn’t until near the end of our tours that we discovered the board was used as a drum to call the Monks to prayer or other events much like a Bell might be used.  We did not discover the purpose of the metal hanging on the left.