Meteora, the hanging monasteries

Photos: VERONICA CONSTANTINESCU

The Meteora ("suspended rocks", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above") is one of the largest and most important complex of monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos. The monasteries are built on spectacular natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The Meteora is home to six monasteries and is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The sandstone rock pillars are marked by horizontal lines which geologists maintain were made by the waters of a prehistoric sea. Greek historian Herodotus wrote in the fifth century BC that local people believed the plain of Thessaly had once been a sea. If this was accurate, there was most probably an inundation at the end of the last Ice Age, around 8000 BC.

The hermit monks, seeking a retreat from the expanding Turkish occupation, found the inaccessible rock pillars of Meteora to be an ideal refuge. Although it is unknown when Meteora was established, hermit monks were believed to be living among the caves and cutouts in the rocks as early as the 11th century AD. Of the about 20 monasteries that were built here beginning in the 14th century only six remain today.

Access to the monasteries was originally extremely difficult, requiring either long ladders lashed together or large nets used to haul up both goods and humans. 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.

Of the six monasteries, five are inhabited by males, one by females. The monasteries have less than 10 inhabitants each and attract numerous tourists every year, serving primarily as museums.

Icon Workshop downward Meteora.