Frescoes by Theophanes the Cretan
Painted in 1527 and among the best of his surviving work.
C messier — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Berthold Werner — CC BY-SA 3.0
The smallest of the Meteora monasteries and the first on the way up from the village of Kastraki, standing on a very narrow rock summit among the famous sandstone pillars. The narrowness of the rock is what distinguishes its architecture: there was no horizontal room to build, so the monastery was built vertically on four levels — a chapel above a chapel above storerooms — an arrangement unusual in Orthodox monasteries. Its main church is covered in frescoes painted by Theophanes the Cretan in 1527, among the most important painters of the Cretan School — the manner that joined the Byzantine tradition to influences from the Italian Renaissance by way of Venetian-ruled Crete. His frescoes here are counted among the best of his surviving work. Meteora as a whole — six working monasteries on rock summits — is on the World Heritage list under both the natural and cultural criteria. The ascent is by carved steps and relatively hard despite the monastery's small size.
Painted in 1527 and among the best of his surviving work.
A Byzantine tradition touched by the Italian Renaissance via Venetian Crete.
Meteora is listed by UNESCO under both criteria.
Meteora, near Kalambaka
Hermits began climbing to caves in the rock in the eleventh century seeking solitude, and the monasteries were built from the fourteenth. Before the steps were carved in the 1930s, access was by long rope ladders drawn up in danger, or in nets raised by winch — the monks are said to have replied that the rope was replaced when it broke. The position was chosen for safety too: these summits protected the monasteries from raids for centuries.
The base is Kalambaka or Kastraki, both directly below the rocks and reached by train from Thessaloniki or Athens. The six monasteries lie along a loop road of about ten kilometres: by car you can visit three or four in a comfortable day, on foot by the old paths you need two. Each has a different closing day, so plan the route around that. Sunset from the viewpoint near Kastraki is the sight people come for.
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