AmorfatiTrips

Monasteries of Meteora

Briefly about Meteora

Meteora means ”suspended in the air” in Greek and has been included in UNESCO’s World Heritage list since 1988 or seven years after a visit by a secret agent from MI6. A mere coincidence or? No, Meteora has a divine reason to be on the list of its own power. Meteora is located in a mountainous part of Thessaly, in the middle of northern Greece, but you can get there from any point of the compass. From Thessaloníki in the northeast and from Athens in the southeast, there are good road or train alternatives and from Parga and the west coast you get a long way by motorway. You can go on an arranged tour or make the trip all on your own.

The two villages with imaginative surroundings

When you come to Meteora you’re met by the intergrown villages of Kastraki, road to the left on the picture, and Kalampaka, road to the right. We were here during the second half of June 2019 and then it was relatively quiet and we definitely want to come back. We’d read about, and saw this picture on site, how it can be here in high season. It can really ruin your experience…

Kastraki

We recommend you to sleep over in one of the villages to see Meteora at dawn and dusk. Then you can avoid, not only the worst heat, but also all the day tourists and see the monasteries with surroundings when they’ve left the area. There’s a great selection of hotels in Meteora, but not all have a pool. You can do as we did and borrow a pool for a small sum at a camping in Kastraki. It’s really refreshing with a swim after a hot day in the mountains.

Although the monasteries are the main attraction, you can’t miss the incredible landscape surrounding Meteora and that embrace the villages of Kalampaka and Kastraki. A thousand pictures can’t describe what one sees, but it must be experienced in place.

We lived in the village of Kastraki, which is considerably smaller than Kalampaka. However, it’s closer to Meteora, which you’re reminded of all the time. If you stay for a few days, take a walk and look at the rock formations with the villages in the foreground. Professor Shellback walked along the country road so I lifted him into the forest.

As you walk up towards Kastraki’s square you are met by the Phantom rock. It really feels like the rock wall is overseeing the village and the Orthodox Church of St Peter and Paul.

Outside the villages, there are few places with shade or opportunity to buy water. Stop when you’ve the chance to rest and drink, so that you’ll be able to enjoy the views in the heat.

Kalampaka

All the way down to the outskirts of Kalampaka one can see the massive mountains all around and between the houses. The Byzantine church, Holy Temple of Dormition of the Virgin Mary, also stands in the shadow of a majestic cliff wall.

Hermit monks

In the midday heat I walk back towards Kastraki and now along the eastern side of the village. Here one can see some cavities where hermit monks have had their hermitages. These hermits spent their days in seclusion and completely devoted to their God. During the cold winters of the 19th century, the hermits abandoned the Meteora area.

Is it a petrified Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars below?

Some hermitages are of a simpler kind with wooden facade and balcony. These could also be ”prisons” for monks who had anything but God in their minds. After purifying one’s soul, the monk was allowed to return to the monastery. Even a monk who recommended that a disciple be admitted to become a monk could be put there, but then for life. This if the new monk would later regret and return to mortality.

Other cavities have been walled into small monasteries. Sometimes on several floors, like below St. Nikolaos Badovas and The Holy Skete (Asketarion) of St. Antonios.

A now-ruined hermit monastery dedicated to St George was built in a cave about 40 meters above the ground. It has a special history and tradition with scarves that is still alive today. You can read more about it here at St George the Mandilas.

The landscape

Before going to the monasteries we must show some pictures of the landscape from the road between the monasteries. If you go on a guided tour, you’ll stay at several of these viewpoints. If you make your own excursion, just stop wherever you want. The pictures speak for themselves.

Time for dinner and we took the opportunity to celebrate Swedish Midsummer in Meteora. Jamas!

The monastries

For long there have been six active monasteries, of which monk monasteries are Great Meteoron, Varlaam, Holy Trinity, St Nicholaos and the nunneries are Roussanou and St Stephen. In the fall of 2017, a seventh monastery, Ypapanti, was opened to visitors after being restored. It’s less than 5 km on the road between the monastries Great Meteora and St Stephen. Therefore, it’s possible to see all monasteries from the outside on one day.

Ypapanti Monastery is a little bit remote while St Nicholaos is the first you to meet on the road up from Kastraki and shortly thereafter comes Roussanou. The other monasteries, Great Meteora, Varlaam, Holy Trinity and St Stephen, are at the top of the road. To get more out of your visit it can be advantageous to book at least one guided tour or a taxi guide. There’s otherwise a local bus that goes up from the villages and down from the monasteries three to four times a day.

On the way to and between the monasteries you can go as you are. In there, however, you must respect that it’s a holy place you visit. We saw several who were stopped if they hadn’t covered their knees and shoulders. In most of the monasteries, clothing is lent to visitors, but these can temporarily run out. However, large parts of the monasteries aren’t accessible to tourists and to photograph indoors isn’t allowed.

Nunnery of St Stephan – Agios Stéfanos

We start by visiting the nun monastery St Stephen’s and it’s also the most easily accessible of all the monasteries. Here, a wide bridge has been arranged which makes it easy for strollers and disabled people to cross the ravine. The monastery was destroyed during the World War II and in the subsequent Greek Civil War, but began to be restored by the nuns in 1961.

Even before stepping in you can see that there are nuns with a green thumb in the monastery. Inside there’s also a well-kept garden, but which can only be viewed from a distance.

From the height you can look at Kalampaka which spreads out on the plain below. It’s a view that takes the breath out of one.

Before leaving the area, take the chance and see the monastery from a little distance. The nature with high mountains in the background gives you memories for life.

Monastry of Holy Trinity – Agios Triada

Next monastery is the one that made Meteora famous outside the divine world, ie for us ordinary mortals. Welcome to Holy Trinity or St Cyril’s as it was called in the James Bond movie ”For Your Eyes Only” from 1981. The monastery dates from 1488, but already 100 years before that, the first monk had come to the rock.

It’s probably the most difficult to access, but the monks and what need to be transported to the monastery can ride the cable car over the ravine. One must probably be divine to dare to sit there. It feels like a favour to walk down to the bottom of the ravine before you start climbing up again via 145 steps. Disability-friendly – not at all!

On a short section, longer people can’t walk straight back. You’ve the opportunity to enjoy the view while resting your back. At last you’ll see the door to the monastery area and can breathe out, but still it has been relatively easy to walk up here.

Here’s a winch that the monks used to hoist goods up to the monastery. The trolley was run on rails over the edge and what had been hoisted could be lowered on it and then the trolley was pulled in again. You must say smart monks 🙂

At the monastery courtyard there’s really not much to see, but anyway the monks have a private small church there. On the other hand, the view is divinely breathtaking from a height of 300 meters above Kalampaka, the Thessalian Plain, and, in the summer, the dried-up river Penelos.

We start hiking back but continue to enjoy the scenery. In addition, we were lucky that renovations were going on at the monastery, why we got to see the cable car ride back and forth.

James Bond & St Cyril’s

What about James Bond? The monks didn’t welcome the production. Filming couldn’t start until a Greek bishop had been rebuked and the Supreme Court overruled the monks’ appeal. However, the monks did their best to sabotage the production by hanging up sheets at the monastery. The film team solved it by building a monastery of wood on an unoccupied cliff nearby. Maybe it had been possible to use it as a recording place and leave the monks at peace? Below is James Bond (played by Roger Moore) getting ready to climb the cliff to St Cyril’s. Maybe a game of backgammon – Amen!

Monastry of Varlaam – Moni Varlaam

The next monastery to visit is Varlaam, which began to be built by a monk of the same name in the mid-1300s. It was abandoned for 200 years after his death, but was completed by two monks from Ioannina in 1517. This monastery is also difficult to reach if you’re disabled as there are 150 steps up and down.

We didn’t visit Varlaam, but were impressed by the view over the monastery and the rock it stands on. A guide warned not to take stupid risks to take a little better picture. It can be easy to forget the scarp you’ve in front of you when you’re watching the beauty.

On the way to and from Varlaam, you can only be amazed at the location the monks have given this monastery. See and enjoy with Roussanou below or with the Great Meteora above. Last but not least, from below with the majestic rock on which Varlaam stands.

Monastry of Great Meteoron – Moni Megalou Meteorou

Near Varlaam and at the top of the country road stands the Monastery of Great Meteora. It’s also called Metamorfossis (Christ’s transformation) and is built on the area’s largest and highest rock, Platys Lithos. We were unable to visit the monastery this time, but of course it remains on the bucket list for the next visit.

Founder in the mid-1300s was a monk named St Athanasios. He was from Athos on the Halkidiki peninsula and had fled the Ottomans who ravaged there. The Serbian-Greek emperor Symeon Uroš, who ruled over Thessaly, supported the monastery. His son Jovan Uroš went a step further and abdicated in 1373 as emperor. After only three years on the throne, he would rather become a monk and donated his entire fortune to the monastery.

The view completely takes the breath out of you. One is actually content just to stand here and admire the monastery and the landscape next door.

Roussanou Nunnery – Moni Agias Varvaras Roussanou

When photographing from other monasteries or viewpoints along the road at the top, you often get the nunnery of Roussanou in the picture. When going down to Kastraki you’ve the monastery just below. Many also think that it’s the most beautiful monastery and with a magnificent background.

The feeling of standing next to the cliff and looking up at the monastery high up is staggering. Below are remnants of the rope ladder used by the monks. It is said that the monks didn’t replace the rope ladder until it went off. When that happened, it was God’s will. Nowadays you get up on a wide walkway. Welcome!

The monastery was completed in the middle of 16th century, but as early as the 1300s, construction had begun on the rock. It was looted during the wars of the 20th century and declined, but renovations began in the 1980s. Here as well, the nuns have created a beautiful garden that can be viewed from above. It’s absolutely worth every step up to admire the view of Meteora you get from here.

St Nicholaos – Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas

Very close to Kastraki is St Nicholaos, but we only saw it from distance this time. Nevertheless, it’s a monastery which appears to be well worth a visit. The monastery, which has a separate bell tower, dates from the 1300s. The monastery was built on during the 16th century, but it was closed in 1909. After renovations in the 1960s it was possible to reopen the monastery.

Plan your visit

Thank you to all monks and nuns for letting us visit and we are already longing to return!! Opening hours that each monastery has and which day they keep closed differ, but updated information can hopefully be found here VisitMeteoraOpeningHours

If you want to read more in detail about the monasteries and their history as well as what’s inside then we recommended VisitMeteoraMonasteries.

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