SuperPasTime - Amazing Monasteries

If you have seen pictures of Greece or spend any time looking through travel brochures then you have certainly been impressed by the monasteries perched on top of enormous rocks and have probably wondered how on earth they built them.

The rocks themselves are impressive, rising from the plains of Thessaly a few miles northwest of Kalambaka. In fact the producers of James Bond found them so impressive that they had Roger Moore (or his stunt double most likely) climb the stone face of one in the movie For Your Eyes Only. Nowdays these rock faces are climbed by professional and amatuers looking for a challenge and what Paros is to wind-surfers, Meteora is to rock-climbers.

The area of Meteora was originally settled by monks who lived in caves within the rocks during the 11th Century. But as the times became more unsure during an age of Turkish occupation, brigandry and lawlessness, they climbed higher and higher up the rock face until they were living on the inaccessable peaks where they were able to build by bringing material and people up with ladders and baskets and build the first monasteries. This was also how the monasteries were reached until the nineteen twenties and now there are roads, pathways and steps to the top.

There are still examples of these baskets which are used for bringing up provisions. But now you don't have to worry about ropes breaking since the monasteries are all connected by a series of pathworks that if you begin early enough you can see them all in one day. They are also connected by roads so if you are coming by car and don't have all day to wander around you can also get close enough and then continue on foot.

During the Turkish occupation it was the monasteries which kept alive the Hellenic culture and traditions and were not only relgious centers but academic and artistic as well. It is believed that were it not for the monasteries, Hellenic culture would have disappeared and modern Greece would be a reflection of the Ottoman empire with little knowledge of its roots and history.

The monasteries attracted not only the deeply religious, but the philosophers, poets, painters and the deep thinkers of Greece. Today only six of the monasteries are active:
Agia Triada or Holy Trinity, founded by the monk Dometius in the 15th century.

Varlaam Monastery, founded in 1517 by Theophanis and Nektarios Apsaradas.

Monastery of Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas, built in the 16th Century by Dionysious, the Metropolitan of Larissa and named after an old Patron.

Roussanou Monastery, founded in 1545 by Joasaph and Maximos, two brothers from Epirus who built it on the ruins of an even older church.

Megalo Meteoro or Metamorphisis, the first church of the Transfiguration is the best known of the Monasteries and is built upon the highest rock. Founded by Athanasios the Meteorite, one of the most well-known figures in Orthodox monasticism, work was begun before 1382 and later completed by the Monk Joasaph. Because the Serbian Emporor Symeon Uros gave the monastry all his wealth and became a monk it became the richest and most powerful of all the monasteries and contains some of the most beautiful wall paintings and post Byzantine Mural art that can be found in Greece as well as a museum collection in the refectory.

Agios Stefanos is the only convent in Meteora and has an unimpeded view of the plain towards Kalambaka. It is not known when the old church was built but the present katholikon dedicated to Saint Haralambos was built in 1798.