Meteora

In the 11th century, the first hermit monks reached the -up until then- inaccessible peaks of the dominating rocks and soon formed the monastic community of “Skiti of Doupiani”. During the 14th century, Saint Athanasios Meteoritis created the first organized ascetic commune in the Great Meteoro. Twenty-four monasteries, numerous cells and pray rooms were carved in the rocks or created inside the caves for more than 600 years. Today, the following monasteries are intact and functioning: Great Meteoro, Varlaam, Holy Trinity, St. Stephan, Rousanou and St. Nicholas Anapafsas.

Hundreds of visitors arrive daily in Meteora, from all over the world, to meditate and pray. They get to know the life of the monks, admire the unique landscape, the peculiar yet impressive architecture and hagiography, as well as study the priceless cultural and religious treasures. The rocks are composed of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate. They were formed about 60 million years ago, during the Paleogene Period, when a series of earth movements pushed the seabed upwards, creating a high plateau and causing many fault lines to appear in the thick layer of sandstone. Continuous weathering by water, wind and extremes of temperature turned them into huge rock pillars, marked by horizontal lines, which geologists believe were made by the waters of a prehistoric sea.

Access

Meteora is around 4 hours away from Athens.