Meteora

Ariel of Hamble
Jim and Valerie SHURVELL
Thu 1 Aug 2013 08:45

26th July, 2013.

 

The main reason why we needed a car was to visit Meteror in  central Greece roughly 130 miles from the boat. Meteora is a collection of natural sandstone towers which were first used as a religious retreat in AD 985 when a hermit named Baarnabas occupied a cave there.  In the mid 14th century Neilos, the Prior of Stagai convent built a small church.  Then in 1382 the monk Athanasios from Mount Athos founded the huge monastery of Megilo Meteroro on one of the many pinnacles.  Twenty three monasteries followed although by the 19th century most had fallen into ruin.  In the 1920’s stairs were cut to make the remaining six monasteries more accessible and now a religious revival has seen the return of monks and nuns.

 

The scenery is wonderful and the sight of these monasteries on the side or on the top of these rocks is great.  Jim and I visited Rousanou which is perched precariously on the very tip of a narrow spire of rock. There is a wooden ladder hanging down outside and inside a heavily bolted wooden door which lead to the ladder to escape if necessary.  Its church of the Metamorfosis (1545) is renowned for its harrowing frescoes painted in 1560 by the iconographers of the Cretan School.  The walls were covered in paintings of many, many people being killed in horrible ways.  We did find it a little bit unusual for a church to have such horrible vivid scenes.  The nuns have kept their garden although small very bright and we bought a jar of honey for me which came we are told from the beehives in the grounds.  It is delicious!  Also for sale were stones of all shapes and sizes with a painting of the monastery drawn by the nuns.

 

Megalo meteoro is known as the Great Meteoron which was the first and the highest monastery at 2045 feet to be founded.  By the entrance is a cave in which Athanasios first lived and his body is buried in the main church.  It is unknown how the first hermits reached the tops of these often vertical rock faces but it is thought they hammered pegs into tiny gaps in the rock and hauled building materials to the summit.

 

The number of steps down to the entrance and then up to the monastery itself were too many to count in the heat but definitely a worthwhile trek. We visited the church with many visitors from around the world and to some it was a very holy place to be. Many ladies were kissing the floor where they walked along with the pictures on the wall and any prayer table. 

 

Items like old tools, the wine making equipment are all on show together with every skull and certain bones of each monk who died were kept in store cupboards which are on display.  The Greeks are very proud of the way they fought the Italians and Germans during WWII and there is a museum given over to the uniforms they wore and the pictures of the war which were taken along with a large stamp collection.  A dining room where the monks ate is open for reviewing.  The views out across the valley were wonderful. Just an amazing place to visit and should be on everyone’s list for the future.

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