Meteora Monasteries

On the way to Meteora, we stopped at the Statue of Leonidas, a modern monument to the Spartans of the Battle of Thermopylae.



Meteora is one of the largest and most important complex of monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos, which is off limits to women. Nina explained to us that Meteora means “suspended in air”, and that is exactly what the monasteries of meteora look like upon their giant rock peaks. The Meteora is home to six monasteries and we got to visit two of these, The Holy Monastery of Rousanou, founded in the middle of 16th century AD and The Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron, the largest of the meteora monasteries, erected in the mid-14th century AD. At both Monasteries Nina talked about the importance and meaning in the wall paintings which were still mostly intact. The wall was separated by stories, each story lined in red. As you went up the wall, the stories went from mortals to immortals. The apostils were under Mary who was under Jesus and so on. At the Great Meteron, we saw the net that used to pull monks up the mountain before stairs were constructed. Out of respect, we did not take photos inside the churches, so I don't have photos of the wall paintings, but I did take many photos of the Meteora area itself. The view from atop the rocks was unreal!