Monasteries of Meteora

The Meteora (Greek for ‘suspended in the air’ or ‘in the heavens above’) is a group of six monasteries and one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece. The six monasteries, built on natural sandstone rock pillars, are one of the most powerful examples of the architectural transformation of a site into a place of retreat, meditation and prayer.

The monasteries are built on the rock pinnacles of deltaic origin, known as Meteora, which rise starkly over 400 m above the Peneas Valley and the small town of Kalambaka on the Thessalian Plain. During the fearsome time of political instability in 14th century, the monasteries were systematically built on top of the inaccessible peaks so that by the end of the 15th century there were 24 of them. They continued to flourish until the 17th century. Today, only four monasteries−Aghios Stephanos, Aghia Trias, Varlaam and Meteoron−still house religious communities.

Access to the monasteries was originally and deliberately difficult, requiring either long ladders lashed together or large nets used to haul up both goods and people. This requires quite a leap of faith−the ropes were replaced, so the story goes, only ‘when the Lord let them break’. In the 1920s there was an improvement in the arrangements. Steps were cut into the rock, making the complex accessible via a bridge from the nearby plateau.