Meteora (Kalambaka)

Monastery Megalou Meteorou:

In the 14th century, monk Athanasius of the Athos mountain came to settle in this area. He climbed the most imposing rock that dominates the entire landscape, and decided to establish his first monastery here.

He called the rock Meteora (literally: High Elevated), because the rock seemed to float between heaven and earth, and in 1356 he built a chapel and a few cells, assisted by fourteen monks following his example. The number of monks was increasing, the church too and the monastery was expanded with towers, a ward, more cells, water reservoirs and other buildings. The region of Meteora had become a center of spiritual life in Thessaly.

The current monastery church of the Metamorphosis (= Glorification of Christ on Mount Tabor) is the oldest preserved church of the Meteora region. She possesses beautiful frescoes from the Cretan School from the 16th century, and from the Macedonian School from later centuries. When the “big” Meteoron still counted a large number of monks, they used the 16th-century, spacious refectory, which has now been transformed into a museum treasury. He houses a magnificent collection of manuscripts, icons and religious objects.

Monastery Varlaam

In the hierarchy of the Meteora monasteries Varlaäm occupies the second place. It was built in its current form in 1518, and was named after the devout hermit who retreated to this rock around the year 1350.

Varlaäm, a contemporary of Athanasius and Josaphat, had the idea to build a second large monastery on the rock just opposite the Great Meteoron. Written sources show that the monastery church was completed in 1542, in only twenty days time.

Before that, however, it took 22 years to bring up the necessary material. This monastery also has a nice museum decorated in the former refectory, full of icons and other liturgical objects, crowned with a calligraphy gospel book signed by the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII.

Monastery Agias Varvaras Rousanou

The Rousanou monastery is at the top of a plateau that hardly offers enough space for it.

According to unconfirmed sources it was founded in the year 1288, but in any case it is certain that 156 years later dilapidated buildings were restored.

The Metamorphosis Church, devoted to the Glorification of Christ on Mount Tabor, dates back to 1545 and is famous for its poignant frescoes (work of painters from the School of Crete) who are still in good condition after more than four hundred years.

Monastery Agias Triados

If we should believe the experts, the monastery of the Holy Trinity is the third oldest foundation of the Meteora region. This indicates that the catholic monastery was built in 1476, but that certain monastic buildings already existed in the 14th century.

The current form of the monastery came into being between 1458 and 1476. According to an unconfirmed tradition, it would have taken 70 years to bring all the necessary material to the top of the rock before the actual construction could begin.

The Germans robbed the treasury of the monastery during WW2. The Trinity Monastery was used as a backdrop in the film Tintin, the secret of the Golden Fleece and the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. 

Other attractions:

• The monasteries Nikolaou Anapafsa and Stefanou.

From the 9th century, the natural sandstone towers were climbed by hermits who created their own environment there and only occasionally came down. One example was the hermit Barnabas who sought a religious shelter here in a cave. Others followed his example.

From the 11th century, expelled monks from elsewhere moved to the area. In the mid-14th century, the first monasteries arose on the peaks, under the influence of the mystical movement of hesychasm (hesychia = rest, calm) and the turbulent times (battle between Serbia and the Byzantine Empire.) In 1336 the monk Athanasios, originating from Mount Athos the Great Meteoron, built the most important monastery on the highest situated (623 meters) hill.

All 23 other monasteries would follow. With nets on ropes and wooden ladders of sometimes forty meters long the monks transported the necessary goods up. In the heyday there was an autonomous community of monks and 24 monasteries in almost complete seclusion from the rest of the world Since 1490 the abbot of the Greater Meteoron also became the head of the entire monastic community of Meteora. 

In the 17th century, however, the decline of monastic life began in Meteora. There was fiddling, some monks kept monk-dressed women and nothing of the idealistic ideas remained. In the 18th century the monasteries were used as a refuge for Greeks who wanted to evade taxes imposed by Turkish rulers. During the 19th century, the Meteora monasteries were used to escape the advancing rebels and during the WW2 and the subsequent Civil War (1945-1949) the monasteries that were still left then suffered a great deal of damage. Now it is one of Greece's most visited and popular (tourist) destinations.