Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
HEALING HEADSCARVES
Visitors to Kastráki are often puzzled by the sight of brightly coloured rags hanging in a
cave high above the village. This is the shrine of
Áyios Yeóryios Mandhilás
(Saint George
of the Kerchiefs), and the “rags” are votive cloths, offerings to the saint. Legend has it that in
the seventeenth century, during the Turkish occupation of Greece, a local Muslim
landowner cut down some trees in the saint's sacred grove. As punishment, Saint George
paralyzed the man's hand; and he was only cured after he offered the saint his wife's veil or
yashmak
, the most precious gift a Muslim can give. In memory of that donation, once a
year on April 23, a couple of hundred daredevil youth from neighbouring villages clamber
up to hang new pieces of cloth and retrieve the old ones, a guarantee of good luck and
good health in the coming year.
prepares to hoist up a supply basket - as would have been done just outside when the
fresco was new. Other Desert Fathers rush to attend the funeral of St Ephraim the Syrian:
some riding beasts, others - crippled or infirm - on litters or piggyback on the strong.
3
Megálou Meteórou
T
24320 22278 •
Daily except Tues in summer; Tues & Wed in winter: April-Oct 9am-5pm; Nov-March 9am-4pm
he
Megálou Meteórou
(aka Great Meteoron & Metamorphosis) is the highest
monastery - requiring a climb of nearly 300 steps from its entrance - built on the
Platýs Líthos (“Broad Rock”) 615m above sea level. It enjoyed extensive privileges and
dominated the area for centuries: in an eighteenth-century engraving (sold as a
reproduction) it dwarfs its neighbours.
The monastery's cross-in-square
katholikón
, dedicated to the Transfiguration, is
Metéora's most imposing; columns and beams support a lofty dome with a
Pandokrátor
. It was enlarged in the 1500s and 1600s, with the original chapel,
constructed by the Serbian Ioasaph in 1383, now the
ierón
behind the intricately
carved
témblon
. Frescoes, however, are much later (mid-sixteenth century) than at most
other monasteries and artistically undistinguished; those in the narthex concentrate
almost exclusively on grisly martyrdoms.
Elsewhere in this vast, arcaded cluster of buildings, the
kellári
(cellar) hosts an exhibit
of rural impedimenta; in the domed, vaulted refectory, still set with the traditional
silver/pewter table service for monastic meals, a
museum
features exquisite carved-
wood crosses and rare icons. The ancient smoke-blackened kitchen adjacent preserves
its bread oven and soup-hearth.
Varlaám (Barlaam)
T
24320 22277 • Daily except Thurs; also closed Fri in winter: April-Oct 9am-4pm; Nov-March 9am-4pm
Varlaám
is among the oldest monasteries, replacing a hermitage established by St
Varlaam shortly after Athanasios' arrival. The present building, now home to a handful
of monks and one of the most beautiful in the valley, was constructed by the Apsaras
brothers from Ioánnina in 1540-44. To get up to it from the entrance point means
climbing about 150 steps.
he monastery's
katholikón
, dedicated to Ayíon Pándon (All Saints), is small but
glorious, supported by painted beams, its walls and pillars totally covered by frescoes
(painted 1544-66), dominated by the great
Pandokrátor
of the inner dome. Among the
more unusual are a beardless Christ Emmanuel in the right transept conch, and the
Parliament of Angels on the left; on one pier, the Souls of the Righteous nestle in the
Bosom of Abraham, while the Good Thief is admitted to Paradise. On the inner
sanctuary wall, there's a vivid Crucifixion and a Dormition of the Virgin with, lower
down, an angel severing the hands of the Impious Jew attempting to overturn her
funeral bier. The treasury-museum features crucifixes and silver items; elsewhere the
monks' original water barrel is on show.
