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Meteora - Trikala

In the late Byzantine period and during the Ottoman rule, this monastic community became a sanctuary of the persecuted. On these barren and inaccessible rocks a center of Byzantine art was created. The history of the Meteora monastic community begins in the 11th century. During the 9th century hermits settled in the caves and crevices of the rocks. On Sundays and important holidays they gathered in Doupiani, near Kastraki (where the monastery and church of the Virgin Mary was later built), to read mass. As monks increased, the cloisters of Doupiani and Stagi were created.

The development of the community, however, may be more thoroughly traced from the 14th century onwards when the first monasteries were established. Between 1356 and 1372 the monk Athanasius founded what was to become the most important of all, the Great Meteoron at Platis Lithos. Athanasius imposed very strict rules on the community, including the exclusion of women from the area. In 1388 John Uresis, a disciple of Athanasius and a grandson of the Serbian prince Stephen, retired to the monastery as monk Joasaph and gifted it with many riches and special privileges. Soon the Great Meteoron gained control over all of the communes and hermitages of the area. The development of other monasteries as well led to the illustrious period of monastic life particularly in the 15th and the 16th centuries. Gradually the community began to deteriorate, and of the twenty-four monasteries that had been built throughout the years, only a few continued to operate. In fact only five monasteries are still inhabited today -the Great Meteoron, Agia Tries, Varlaam, Agios Stefanos and Roussanou (the last two by nuns).

Three km from Kalambaka and again on the left is the monastery of Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas. Built slightly before 1510, it was decorated in 1527 with beautifully preserved frescoes by the famous hagiographer Theophanes the Cretan.

Close by, are the ruins of the monastery of Agia Moni, built around 1315. Near by, is also the Roussanou monastery, probably built in 1288 and renovated as a monastery in 1545. It contains frescoes of the Cretan School, made in 1560.

Following the southern route, which eventually takes one to the monastery of Agios Stefanos, one first comes upon the Agia Trias monastery, situated on a particularly beautiful pinnacle, built between 1458 and 1476 by the monk Dometius, it is reached by a circular flight of stairs (approximately 140 steps).

At the end of the road is the nunnery and Museum of Agios Stefanos. A steep gorge separates the pinnacle from the main cliff, and the two rocks are connected by a bridge.

Referred to as a hermitage at the beginning of the century, in 1333 Agios Stefanos was visited by Emperor Andronicus the III Paleologus. The head of the saint is preserved in the monastery's cathedral, Agios Haralambos. In the old church of Agios Stefanos (1350) someone can still admire the beautiful gold-leaved wood carvings, wall paintings and old icons.

On the northern route the visitor soon comes upon the monastery of Varlaam by climbing 195 steps. It was built as late as 1517 by the brothers Theophanes and Nectarios, scions of a rich family from Janena, on the site of the old hermitage of the hermit Varlaam. The frescoes in the chapel of All Saints are by the famous hagiographer Franco Catellano, done in 1548, the Narthex in 1566. The chapel of the Three Hierarchs was renovated in 1627.

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