Meteora Greece

Meteora Greece is the place I liked the most during our 5-day trip at Greece.

Meteora means "lofty", "elevated", and is a peculiar rock formation - a pillar is larger than a typical spire, but not quite a mountain  - they are giant rock pillars and hill like boulders. Mosses on the rocks and foliage at their feet make the area an amazing natural beauty. 

A typical formation of Meteora Rock formation

What make the area unique are the monasteries with red roofs on top of some of the giant rock pillars. The monasteries are Eastern Orthodox Churches.  Twenty-four monasteries were built atop the giant natural pillars and hill-like rounded boulders from the second half of the 14th century. Currently Six of these are still active and open to visitors: the monasteries of Great Meteoron (est. 1356), Varlaam, Saint Nicholas Anapausas, Rousanou, Holy Trinity, and Saint Stephen. The latter became a community of nuns in 1961, whereas the former five remain managed by monks.

Meteora's amazing natural beauty and cultural significances make it UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988. 

A monastery on top of a rock pillar

We arrived at Meteora in the rainy night of our day 3 at Greece. We saw the silhouette of the rock formations and were eager to see them in the daylight. The hotel we stayed was San Giorgio Villa, which is at the feet of some rock formations.

The next morning, we got up early and walked around the surrounding area before breakfast.

The rain had stopped already, and clouds started to breakup, and moved fast, the air was crisply cool, and the Sun was about to rise. The walkabout was pleasing.

foliage in the town

The Sun was rising

A rock needle under the lit-up cloud 

After breakfast, we drove to the monasteries short distance away (1 - 10 km). 

The first stop was Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas. This is a small monastery we did not go in, but we enjoyed the surrounding vistas a lot. We found out later that we could see this monastery from our hotel room's balcony.

Rainbow over Monastery of St. Nicholas

The valley of Kalabaka

A cluster of rock pillars

looking back at St Nicholas from a higher vista point

The second stop was Holy Monastery of Rousanos. It was closed but had views of surrounding mountains and rock formations. We eventually went into the Holy Monastery of the varlaam - our third stop.

Monastery of Varlaam - viewed from tourist parking lot

Looking down at Holy Monastery of Rousanos which is at lower elevation 

A persimmon tree in front the church 

Virgin Mary is a common subject of paintings and sculptures 

Greek and Eastern Orthodox Church Flags, the latter has a black double-headed eagle in a yellow field

A Cross at the back of the church facing the valley and east

When we came down from the monastery, we wanted to use a different route, which led us to the valley at the foot of the backside of the rock pillar, and a trail from the valley leading to this monastery! We hiked a short distance down and decided to turn back - our car was parked at the top of the rock pillar!

A trail to the monastery

The fourth and last monastery we visited was  Monastery of the Holy Trinity. The road is separated from the monastery by a small valley, we had to hike down to the valley and then climb the rock pillar to the monastery through a tunnel on the side of the rock formation, 1 mile distance round trip.

View of the Holy Trinity from a road side scenic point

Looking back at the monasteries we visited

Semantron - an instrument used to summon monastics to prayer  

The sun rays made this Cross looked especially Holly

We spent about five hours in the Meteroa. 

Natural Beauty and Monastery architecture made Moteroa on the top of my list during this Greek trip.

Notes

1. We did not go to the tow monasteries - the largest and highest one  - Great Meteoron Monastery. We got to the tunnel entrance to the monastery,  only found out that it was closed on that day - the monasteries don't open everyday to tourists. We did not go to the Saint Stephen either, intentionally - it is smaller and not on the convenient path.

2. We were only sightseeing and did not spend too much time on the history and religion. 

3. We went to the largest town Kalabaka in the area, and had a great lunch in a Greek family restaurant. Our hotel was at smaller town - Kastraki

4. We might hike the Meteora if we knew it was this good. 

5. Official site https://visitmeteora.travel/monastery-of-great-meteoron-meteora/