Greece - Korina Miller [208]
Sights
MONASTERIES
The monasteries are linked by asphalt roads, but it’s possible to explore the area on foot on the old and once-secret monopatia (monk paths). Before setting out, decide on a route. If you start early, you can see several mones (monasteries), perhaps all, in one day. The main road surrounding the entire Meteora complex of rocks and monasteries is about 10km; with your own transport, you can easily visit them all. Every day, a bus (€1.20, 20 minutes) departs from Kalambaka and Kastraki at 9am, and returns at 1pm. That’s enough time to explore three monasteries – Moni Megalou Meteorou, Moni Varlaam and Moni Agias Varvaras Rousanou. Perhaps the best route is to take the bus one way to the top and then work your way down and around on foot, finishing at either Moni Agiou Nikolaou on the Kastraki side, or at Moni Agia Triada on the Kalambaka side.
Walking and climbing around the rocks cans be thirsty work, but there are mobile canteens selling drinks and snacks at some monastery car parks. Also double-check opening hours; the monks are an independent lot, and no two monasteries keep exactly the same hours.
Entry to each monastery is €2, and dress codes apply: no bare shoulders are allowed, men must wear trousers and women must be covered to below the knee (baggy bottoms with elastic waistbands are generally provided).
Moni Agiou Nikolaou (Monastery of St Nikolaou Anapafsa; 24320 22375; 9am-3.30pm Sat-Thu Apr-Oct) is the nearest moni to Kastraki, just 2km from the village square to the steep steps leading to the moni. The monastery was built in the 15th century, and the exceptional frescoes in its katholikon were painted by the monk Theophanes Strelizas from Crete. Especially beautiful is the 1527 fresco The Naming of Animals by Adam in Paradise.
The best known of the monasteries, Moni Megalou Meteorou (Grand Meteora Monastery, Metamorphosis; 24320 22278; 9am-5pm Wed-Mon Apr-Oct, 9am-4pm Thu-Mon Nov-Mar) is an imposing form built on the highest rock in the valley, 613m above sea level. Founded by St Athanasios in the 14th century, it became the richest and most powerful monastery thanks to the Serbian emperor Symeon Uros, who turned all his wealth over to the monastery and became a monk. Its katholikon has a magnificent 12-sided central dome. Its striking series of frescoes entitled Martyrdom of Saints depicts the graphic persecution of Christians by the Romans.
About 700m down from Moni Megalou, Moni Varlaam ( 24320 22277; 9am-4pm Wed-Mon Apr-Oct, Thu-Mon Nov-Mar) has a small museum, an original rope-basket (until the 1930s the method for hauling up provisions and monks), and fine late-Byzantine frescoes by Frangos Kastellanos. The mural The Blessed Sisois at the Tomb of Alexander the Great shows the great conqueror as a humble skeleton. Look just above the door, past the candles.
For a panoramic break, visit the rambling Psaropetra lookout, 300m east of the signposted fork northeast of Moni Varlaam.
Access to Moni Agias Varvaras Rousanou ( 24320 22649; 9am-6pm Thu-Tue Apr-Oct, 9am-4pm Nov-Mar) is via a small wooden bridge. The beautiful coloured-glass-illuminated katholikon is the highlight here, with superb frescoes of the Resurrection (on your left entering) and Transfiguration (on your right). The imposing steep structure of Rousanou is itself a stunning accomplishment, and is today home to an order of 15 nuns. If you’re there near closing, listen for the call to vespers (see Harmony at Rousanou, Click here).
Of all the monasteries, Moni Agias Triados (Holy Trinity Monastery; 24320 22220; 9am-5pm Fri-Wed Apr-Oct, 10am-3pm Nov-Mar) has the most remote feel about it, plus the longest approach. It was featured in the 1981 James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. The views here are extraordinary, and the small 17th-century katholikon is beautiful, in particular the Judgement