Meteora, “suspended in the air” monasteries – absolutely magnificent and stunning place!
Interesting facts about Meteora
- It was used as a filming location for the James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only. Holy Trinity (1475) is the monastery used in the movie.
- Meteora also inspired the backdrop for Game of Thrones when Tyrion is being held in the Eyrie.
- The Linkin Park album Meteora got it’s name from…well, Meteora.
- During World War II, the Germans occupied Meteora and burned down some of the precious artifacts. In Grand Meteora you can see images of people throwing a Nazi off a cliff from a monastery.
- Went to the following 5 of the 6 surviving monasteries (originally 24 monasteries):
- Great Meteoron (the only one where you could pay by credit card), then walk to Varlaam.
- Varlaam – liked it the most, because it had more rooms open for visitors. Plus their small museum gave a good context for understanding more about monasteries.
- Holy Trinity – was the one they didn’t even ask me to put on a “skirt”. While it didn’t have much open space inside, the view from the top of the monastery was amazing with Kalambaka right beneath it. This is the monastery that we could hike from the apartment we stayed at Kalambaka. We ended up not doing it (about one hour each way), because we were told that the path itself was not very picturesque – the true gem was Holy Trinity, which we already went to.
- Rousanos, or St. Barbara – there was a Russian-speaking group from Ukraine. I ended up going with them inside and listened in to the guide. There wasn’t anything earth-shattering that I wouldn’t know about the general interpretations of holy biblical scenes, but it was nice to listen to some narration.
- St. Stephen – went to it and spent the most time enjoying the view of the monastery and the valley. It closes in the middle of the day and reopens at 3:30pm, so there were no crowds when we came but then we saw buses and people pulling up as this is the most accessible one with no stairs to climb.
- St. Nicholas Anapafsas – hardest hike, smallest monastery (often skipped by tours) – didn’t go.
