The monasteries of Meteora are at the centre of the Greece, where the River Pinios produces the deep canyons of the chain of Pindus and waves in thessalien plain.
It's gigantic rocks, engraved by time in a variety of forms; grey stalagmites rising into the sky, they appear as a gift of nature to the piles which, dnven by faith, have opted for a life of worship and solitude.
Monasteries, with their wooden galleries and corniced roofs, of the Crown the peaks of these amazing pinnacles.
Dangerously suspended over the sinister abyss, with the range of Pindus to their backs and the vast plain, wood, gorges and picturesque villages below, these inexperienced hermitages composed one of the sites more breathtaking on Earth.
In the Byzantine period end and under Ottoman rule this monastic community became a refuge for the persecuted. On these barren and inaccessible rocks, a centre of Byzantine art was created.
The history of the monastic community of Meteor begins in the 11th century. In the 9th century, hermits settled in the caves and crevices of rocks. Sundays and major holidays, they met in Doupiani near Kastraki (where the monastery and the Church of the Virgin Mary was built later), to read mass. As the monks increased, the cloister of Doupiani and Stagi have been created.
Between 1356 and 1372, the monk Athanasius founded what would become the most important of all the great Meteoron in Platis Lithos. Athanase imposed strict rules on the community, including the exclusion of women from the region.
In 1388 John Uresis, a follower of Athanasius and the grandson of the Serbian prince Stephen withdrew to the monastery as a monk Joasaph and it has many wealth and special privilege. Soon the great Meteoron acquired balance on all the communes and the hermitages of the region.
The development of the monasteries thus led to the illustrious period of monastic life, particularly in the 15th and 16th century. Gradually, the community began to deteriorate; twenty-four monasteries which had been built over the years, only very few continue to operate. In fact only five monasteries are still inhabited today - the great Meteoron, Agia Trias, Varlaam, Agios Stefanos and Roussanou (the last two by nuns).
A good paved road gives access to each of the major monasteries easy and interesting. They can be visited in succession on a single trip (21 km from Kalambaka and back).
On the left side of the road to the monasteries, at the foot of the Meteora, stands Doupiani Hermitage and chapel from the 12th century of the Virgin. Nearby are the ruins of the Pantocrator and Doupiani monasteries.
The monastery of Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas constructed shortly before 1510, that it was decorated in 1527 with beautifully preserved frescoes by the famous Theophanes the Cretan hagiographer.
Relatives of are the ruins of the monastery of Agia Moni, built to 1315.
Six kilometers, the road to the North and South forks. During the filming, on our right we are going by the monastery Roussanou, probably built in 1288 and renovated in a monastery in 1545. It contains frescoes of the school of Cretan, in 1560.
Following the road to the South, will eventually lead us to the monastery of Agios Stephanos, we come first on the monastery of Agia Trias, built between 1458 and 1476 by Dometius monk. Located on a particularly beautiful Pinnacle, is accessed by a circular flight of stairs (approximately 140 measures).
At the end of the road is the convent and the Museum of Agios Stephanos. A steep gorge separates the main cliff. Two rocks are connected by a bridge. Called in as a Hermitage in the early century, in 1333 Agios Stephanos was visited by Emperor Andronic Paleologus III.
The head of the saint is kept in the Cathedral of the monastery Agios Haralambos. In the old church of Agios Stephanos (1350) one can still admire the beautiful woodcarvings, murals and old icons gold leaf.
Return to the crossroads of the roads and on the road to the North soon come on the monastery of Varlaam 195 climbing steps. It was built until 1517 by the brothers Theophanes and nectary, son of a wealthy family of Janena, on the site of the former chapel of the hermit Varlaam.
The frescoes in the chapel of all Saints are by the famous hagiographer Franco Catellano, in 1548; Narthex in 1566. The chapel of the three bishops was restored in 1627.
The road stops at the great Meteoron, the largest and most important monasteries. In old days ascent to the monastery was made by articulated ladders and nets or baskets. Today, it goes up to a flight 115 steep stairs, irregular, cutting the rock wall. Sumptuous allocations of the great Meteoron becomes autonomous and acquired many valuable works of art.
It should also visit the beautiful church of the Transfiguration with beautiful frescoes, fascinating for the visitor and a complex twelve - sided dome. Of interest too is refectory of the monastery - today a Museum - and his many library manuscripts and rare books.
When stopping at these isolated from monasteries and look at the chain of Pindus and thessalien plain below, it includes why the hemmits chose this place to serve God and approach him.