Meteora Megalo Meteoro Monastery

Our penultimate visit for the day was to, as its name suggests, the largest monastery in Meteora, Megalo Meteoro Monastery. It was founded in the 14^th century by St Athanasios from Mount Athos and was built on the highest rock in the valley, 613m above sea level. Megalo Meteoro became the richest and most powerful monastery in Meteora thanks to the Serbian emperor Symeon Uros, who became a monk and gave all his wealth to the monastery. Despite its size there are now only about 3 monks resident in the monastery.

‘Ascension tower’   

Perhaps because of its size, Megalo Meteoro has the most swept up ‘visitor experience’ of all the monasteries we visited. Inside there are displays of the kitchen as it used to be, the ‘ascension tower’ (basket hoist), workshops, storerooms etc etc.

Kitchen   

Workshops, wine press, wine barrels and stores   

Storerooms with more big barrels of wine tucked away   

One of several courtyards   

In addition to viewing the displays of monastic life from yesteryear, we were permitted to wander around a number of beautifully laid out courtyards, 2 museums and the katholicon. Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take photos in either the museums or the church. The first museum we visited featured monastic treasures, highly embroidered robes and ceremonial clothing, manuscripts and icons; the other showed more of the history of Meteora including photographs from the Greek War of Independence and WWII. Clearly, the monks were a feisty lot, happy to play their part supporting, and in some cases leading, partisan fighters against the occupying forces.

As befits a monastery of this size and wealth, the church has a large, 12-sided central dome and is impressively well decorated inside. We were allowed to take some photos in the area outside the church itself, which gives an idea of the style of the artwork but the paintings inside are very different in subject. Entitled ‘The Martyrdom of Saints’ the pictures graphically depict the persecution of Christians by the Romans – flaying, skinning alive, boiling in cauldrons, crucifixion and merely beheading (to name but a few nasty ends), the monastic artists seem to have let their nightmarish imaginations run riot. It seemed that every vertical surface was covered in pictures that the British Board of Film Classification would rate somewhere around 15 or 18 if they were to be incorporated into a ‘cartoon’ film. Still, we’re guessing that someone felt that it was a good use of  Symeon Uros’ gold.

View across the rock stacks from Megalo Meteora Monastery, which was built on the highest one in the valley   

View down to Kastraki   

And so, after a final gaze down across the valley from the heights of Megalo Meteoro, we headed out to drive down into the valley to the final monastery of our trip.

Meteora, Greece