Translation: Jon Alkorta Martiartu, PhD (UPV/EHU)
Meteora: Touching the sky with the fingers
Elevated Byzantine Monasteries of Northern Greece
Let’s travel to Greece to a tremendously impressive place, both from a natural and artistic point of view. This is Meteora, near Kalambaka, in northern Greece. Here we find a religious complex of the Orthodox Church called the ‘monasteries of Meteora’, which literally means “monasteries suspended in the sky”. Its name derives from the geography of the place, as we have some sandstone rock formations that rise up to about 250 meters above ground level and the monasteries are located right at the top.
To give you an idea of what this place is like, I have to mention that the Eyrie from the series Game of Throneswas filmed in this place.
To know how these constructions, incredible for their time, were built, we have to go back to the 14th century, when the first settlements in this place are dated. The construction method was based on cranes and pulleys. Let us remember that in that period the great Gothic cathedrals had already been erected and, although we are in the Orthodox world, the construction techniques of these monasteries follow technologies that were already known at the time.
What is interesting is why they were built in such an inaccessible place. There was a monk, Athanasius, who had been expelled from Mount Athos, also in Greece, which was the first focus of the Orthodox church at the time. Consequently, he decided to build his own monastery on these gigantic rocks, and founded the monastery that we know today as Great Meteor.
Although it would be logical to think that these monasteries were raised so high to be closer to God, which is also the case, the reality is that they wanted to be safe from the Turks and Albanians, who were hostile to Christianity. So, we have a double purpose: religious and protective.
The complex consists of six main monasteries: St. Nicholas Monastery, St. Stephen Monastery, Holy Trinity Monastery, Roussanou Monastery, Varlaam Monastery and the aforementioned Great Meteor.
Most of them can be visited as a series of walkways have been built to connect them.
Moreover, these monasteries have many Byzantine frescoes. The pictorial repertoire is impressive. Obviously, we are going to find representations of Christ in Majesty, as well as images of the Virgin Mary with the child, in a form that is known as theotokos, which means “throne of God”, in which the Child Jesus is seated on Mary, as if she were his throne.
We also have a whole series of representations of saints of the Orthodox Church such as St. George, St. Christopher or St. Nicholas, in addition to the monks who built these buildings: Athanasius and Gioasaf, who are not saints, but are considered pious.
But within this iconography we have some representations that are unique and especially striking.
In the first place we have a fresco with Saint Constantine and Saint Helena, as fathers of Christianity. In the Orthodox world both are recognized as saints, while the Catholic Church only recognizes St. Helena as such.
Constantine, the Roman Emperor, had a dream before going into battle where a cross appeared to him, which he was to use as an ensign. He did so and won the battle. Understanding this cross as that of Christ crucified, Constantine led the rise of Christianity. It is said that when he died, he converted to this faith and for this reason the Byzantines consider him a saint.
St. Helena, on the other hand, is the mother of Constantine, and her story tells that she travelled to the Holy Land and discovered the cross of Christ on Golgotha. For this reason, she is also considered a saint.
Another work that is worth commenting on is the sleeping of St. Nicholas. The fact is that normally only the sleeping of the Virgin is represented, which implies that Mary was not dead, but asleep, and that she ascended body and soul to Heaven. Therefore, we have to assume that St. Nicholas, for the Orthodox tradition, did not die either, but fell asleep and his body ascended together with his soul.
But the fresco that caught my attention the most is another one that tells a much less known story that would give us a clue about the whereabouts of the tomb of Alexander the Great, which has not yet been discovered. In the Monastery of Varlaam there is a painting depicting St. Sissois next to the tomb of Alexander the Great, whose lid of the sarcophagus is open and the mortal remains of Alexander can be seen.
This could give us a clue about one of the most sought-after tombs in history. It has been traced in Memphis, then in Alexandria, where Julius Caesar is supposed to have visited it, and also near the Atarina mosque in Arab territory. The fresco of Meteora would potentially lead us to some sacred place of the Byzantine empire, a new clue to trace the cenotaph and the remains of Alexander the Great.
There are also several interesting books that tell us about the importance of Meteora, all of them logically written in Greek. These date from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries and among them there are musical codices with the chants that were sung by the monks in the monasteries. There are also some miniated books with representations of some saints such as St. John Chrysostom, one of the most important characters of the Orthodox tradition.
To visit these monasteries, there is a 17-kilometer route that starts from the town of Kalambaka and takes visitors through the various monasteries. There are long flights of stairs and bridges between the different buildings and you can admire all these treasures that we have just mentioned. The entrance has a symbolic price of 3 € and the only requirement is decorum in dress.
OpenEdition le sugiere que cite este post de la siguiente manera:
Dr. Pedro Ortega (5 de febrero de 2024). Meteora: tocando el cielo con los dedos. El blog de Tartalo. Recuperado 19 de marzo de 2025 de https://doi.org/10.58079/vr9g