Northern Greece - Greece - page 488

Lazaros Andonakis Rooms PENSION $
( 23770 71366; s/d €45/55; ) These airy, pine-furnished rooms, some with harbour
views, are 50m from the Pilgrims' Office.
Kritikos SEAFOOD $$$
( 23770 71222; www.okritikos.com ; Ouranoupoli; fish per kilo €45/60; lunch & dinner)
Whether you're looking to celebrate a 'last supper' before visiting food-deprived Mt
Athos or just want somewhere for a leisurely dinner, this bright place on a central side
street offers Ouranoupoli's best fresh fish. Landlubbers can try the inventive pastas and
salads.
Mt Athos (Agion Oros) Αγιον Ορος
If you're lucky enough to be able to visit Mt Athos, do it - it's an experience you won't
forget. For over a millennium, unbroken spiritual activity has survived on this isolated
peninsula, in a semi-autonomous monastic republic following the Julian calendar. Athos
has 20 working monasteries, and skites (monastic dependencies), plus kelli (ascetic her-
mitages). The north is thickly forested, the more inaccessible south dominated by soaring
Mt Athos (2033m). With neither industry nor hunting, it's essentially a nature reserve.
An enormous World Heritage site, Mt Athos is formally Greek, though ecclesiastically
it's under the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople (İstanbul).
Legend attests that the Virgin Mary visited and blessed Athos; considered the Garden
of the Virgin, it's dedicated to her - there's no room for other women. Although this has
frustrated some Eurocrats in Brussels, they've proven no match for 1000 years of tradi-
tion and the gold-sealed chrysobulls (decrees) of Byzantine emperors, whose names are
still invoked in prayers and whose edicts are still respected.
With advance preparations, male pilgrims can visit for four days (with extensions pos-
sible). The experience is peaceful and tiring. You usually follow the monks' lifestyle, eat-
ing and attending services (at 3am and 3pm daily, but on feast days sometimes up to 10
hours standing). When you traipse the quiet Athonite forest paths and marvel at the mon-
astic architecture and art treasures, the uniqueness of the place registers; whether or not
you're religious, the experience will leave a strong impression.
History
Mid-Byzantine ascetics gravitated towards rugged, inaccessible Athos. Emperor Basil I's
AD-885 chrysobull confirmed its status, and in 943 its territory was mapped. In 963 the