GREAT METEOR MONASTERY

This male monastery (Ιερά Μονή Μεγάλο Μετέωρο/Iera Moni Megalo Meteoro) is the oldest, largest and most prestigious in the Meteora Valley, a Unesco World Heritage site. Dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior (Metamorfosis tou Sotiros), it is also the highest: accessible by a staircase of 146 steps dug out in 1922, it sits atop the Platys Lithos ("large stone") column, 415 m high and the highest point of the Meteora (613 m above sea level). Dominating all the other monasteries, it offers grandiose views as far as the Peneus valley. Unfortunately, it has fallen victim to over-tourism. In season, as soon as it opens, it's packed to the rafters and cars park along the winding road, sometimes as far as the Varlaam monastery.

History. The Great Meteor was founded in the 1340s by the hermit Athanasius. A native of Ypati, near Lamia, and known as Saint Athanasius of Meteora, it was he who gave the rock the name Meteoro: "suspended in the sky", implied by God. But it was the Serbian prince of Thessaly Simeon Uroš and his son Jovan Uroš who founded the monastic community of Meteoro in 1370. Having become a monk under the name of Joasaph, Jovan Uroš succeeded Athanasius in 1372. He obtained the stavropegia (semi-independence) of the Great Meteora and enlarged the complex on the Athos model until his death, around 1423. This date coincides with the arrival of the Ottomans. The Ottomans encouraged the development of the monasteries, which were still in their infancy, by granting broad autonomy to the bishopric of Stagi (Kalambaka). This was how the Meteora reached its golden age in the ^16th century. The Great Meteor became a renowned intellectual center with the creation of an academy around 1550. From the ^17th century onwards, however, lack of financial resources and the weakening of the Ottomans led to the decline of Meteora. While most of the other monasteries were abandoned, the Grand Meteora was burnt and looted several times, then heavily taxed when Thessaly became part of Greece in 1881. It wasn't until the 1960s that the monastery was reborn.

Sightseeing. The two most interesting parts to visit are the catholicon (main church) and the museum. Topped by a twelve-sided dome, the Metamorfosis tou Sotiros church was built in 1387 and decorated in 1552 by the painter Tzortzis, a disciple of the great Cretan Theophanes. In the narthex: bloody scenes of martyrs, Deisis (Christ surrounded by the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist) and portraits of founders Athanasius and Joasaph (with their tombs on the floor). In the nave: frescoes of Christ Pantocrator (dome) and the cycles of the life and Passion of Christ, iconostasis (1791) and the "miraculous" icon of the Panagia Meteoritissa (^14th century). The sanctuary features ^15th-century frescoes: portraits of the founders, warrior saints dressed in Serbian style and the Virgin Dominatrix. The museum houses ^{14th-16th-century} icons, liturgical objects, gold-embroidered epitaphs and precious manuscripts, including the firmans (decrees) of the sultans who ensured the protection of the Great Meteor. On the terrace with its magnificent views, note two inaccessible rock columns in the direction of the Varlamm monastery: that of the "Devil's Tower" (Pyrgos Diavolou) and that of Ypsilotera, with the church of an ancient monastery on the cliffside.