VARLAAM MONASTERY

Perched on a 373 m-high rock column, this male monastery (Ιερά Μονή Βαρλαάμ/Iera Moni Varlaam) is the largest in the Meteora, after that of the Great Meteor located slightly further away. Dedicated to "all the saints" (Agion Panton), it owes its name to a hermit who lived here in the ^mid-14th century, a certain Varlaam (or Barlaam). However, the monastery was founded in the early ^16th century by the monks Nektarios and Theophanis, two brothers from Ioannina: legend has it that it took them twenty-two years to assemble the materials for the summit and then only twenty-two days to build the monastery, which was completed in 1542. If today's ascent is a daunting ordeal, with 195 steps dug out in the 1930s, imagine that for centuries the top of the rock was only accessible by rope and pulley system. But stay motivated, because in the Agion Panton catholicon, one of Meteora's masterpieces awaits you: the frescoes by the great Theban painter affiliated with the Cretan school, Frangos Katelanos (c. 1520-1590).

Magnificent frescoes. Dating from 1548, Katelanos' works cover the entire nave and sanctuary. Note the splendid scenes of the Crucifixion, the betrayal of Judas and the dormition of the Mother of God, as well as the Christ Pantocrator on the dome. The narthex, meanwhile, was decorated in 1566 by two other artists from Thebes, the brothers Georgios and Frangos Kontaris: founders offering the church to the Christ Child, Saint Sisoes meditating in front of the skeleton of Alexander the Great, Last Judgment... And a few alterations were made to the whole in the ^18th century. Throughout the monastery, you can also see the chapel of the Three Hierarchs (Tris Ierarches) dating from the period of the hermit Varlaam, a rich museum (relics, icon of the Virgin and Child by Emmanuel Tzanes, gold-embroidered epitaphs, illuminated manuscripts, etc.), the enormous 12,000-liter wooden barrel used to collect rainwater, the tomb of the founder Theophanis, and the ancient pulley system. And don't forget the terrace with its breathtaking views of Kastraki and the Roussanou monastery. Finally, note that if the name Varlaam doesn't sound very "Greek", it's because it comes from the Sanskrit Bhagavan, one of the names given to... Buddha. In the ^11th century, Byzantine monks brought the story of Barlaam and Josaphat to Europe (without knowing its origins), a Christianized version of the Buddhist text The Life of Bodhisattva.