Visiting the Meteora monasteries

The short answer

Six monasteries at Meteora admit visitors: Great Meteoron, Varlaam, Roussanou, Holy Trinity (Agia Triada), St Stephen (Agios Stefanos) and St Nicholas Anapafsas. Visit Greece counts 24 monasteries in the complex, of which these six are in operation. Visit Greece says Meteora was inscribed as a UNESCO mixed World Heritage Site in 1988.[2] They are working monasteries, two of them convents, and the visiting schedule belongs to each community: the Holy Metropolis of Stagoi and Meteora publishes every monastery's summer and winter hours and its weekly closing day, and the closing days differ from one monastery to the next.[1]

That is the main planning fact. A day that suits one monastery may be the day another is shut, and the summer and winter schedules differ.

XTOUR plans the six from Kalambaka. Kalambaka is a base, not a container: the Metropolis describes Roussanou as lying beside the western road that leads from Kalambaka and the village of Kastraki to the monasteries, and St Nicholas Anapafsas as the first monastery reached on leaving Kastraki.[1] XTOUR gives no travel times between the town and the monasteries or between the monasteries themselves.

Who publishes the rules

Three official bodies describe Meteora, and they do different jobs.

• The Holy Metropolis of Stagoi and Meteora, the diocese, carries one entry per monastery on its own site, in Greek, each with a telephone number and a timetable.[1] This is the closest XTOUR has to the monasteries' own word.
• Visit Greece, the Greek National Tourism Organisation, publishes a Meteora route with the same closing days, a dress and behaviour note, and the advice to call each monastery before visiting.[2]
• The Ministry of Culture and Sports describes the monasteries' history and architecture, but its information page does not publish their hours; it says the visiting hours vary and refers readers to each monastery.[5]

Neither the Metropolis nor Visit Greece mentions a ticket or an entrance fee on the pages XTOUR read, so XTOUR does not state one.

The six monasteries

Great Meteoron (the Transfiguration) is the monastery of Athanasius the Meteorite. The Metropolis says he climbed the rock called the Stylos of Stagoi shortly before 1340, later took the rock called Platys Lithos and named it Meteoro, a name that came to cover the whole stone forest.[1] Visit Greece describes a Museum of Relics in its refectory of 1557,[3] and the Ministry says the old monastery is used as a museum.[4]

Varlaam takes its name from the hermit Varlaam, who by tradition first lived on the rock in the 14th century.[1] Visit Greece says 195 steps lead up to it today and that its old refectory serves as a sacristy and museum.[2]

Roussanou (also called St Barbara) names as its official founders two brothers from Ioannina, the monks Ioasaph and Maximus, who received permission to settle on the rock between 1527 and 1529; the Metropolis says it officially became a women's monastery on 17 October 1988.[1] Visit Greece describes a cliff of about 60 metres and a female community today.[2]

Holy Trinity stands on a large rock reached by 149 carved steps, according to the Metropolis, which dates its founding to the mid-14th century and records the monastery as organised by 1362.[1] Visit Greece mentions a Folklore Museum there.[3]

St Stephen has been a women's monastery since 1961, according to the Metropolis.[1] Visit Greece says a stone bridge connects it to the road and calls it the one exception to the staircases and uphill walking at the others. Its old refectory now holds manuscripts and early printed books, according to the same page.[2]

St Nicholas Anapafsas is the first monastery reached from Kastraki, according to both the Metropolis and Visit Greece.[1] Visit Greece credits its wall paintings to Theophanes Strelitzas Bathas, an icon painter of the Cretan School, and calls them his oldest signed work.[2]

Weekly closing days

The Metropolis lists two schedules for each monastery: a summer one, from 1 April to 31 October for five of them and from 16 May to 31 October for Roussanou, and a winter one for the rest of the year.[1] Visit Greece's route page gives the same closing days.[2] XTOUR does not restate the opening times; they are on the Metropolis page, which is where to check them.

The two sources do not match everywhere. For St Nicholas Anapafsas, the Metropolis gives shorter winter hours on Saturdays and Sundays than on weekdays, while Visit Greece gives a single winter time for every open day.[1] Visit Greece itself says the hours are strictly adhered to and advises calling the monastery before a visit.[2]

Dress and conduct

The only monastery-specific rule XTOUR has read is the notice in Great Meteoron's entry on the Metropolis page: visitors must enter decently dressed, and men wearing bermudas, shorts or sleeveless tops and women wearing trousers or sleeveless tops are not admitted.[1] The other five entries on that page carry no such notice.

Visit Greece's route page gives a general version for all the monasteries: tops that cover the shoulders, long trousers for men and long skirts for women, quiet in places of worship, and courtesy and discretion with monks and nuns. The same page says monasteries typically provide long skirts and scarves at the entrance for visitors who are not dressed appropriately.[2] XTOUR has not read a monastery's own statement that it lends clothing, so it does not say that any particular monastery does.

Getting up to the monasteries

The pages describe the approaches differently, and none of them is an accessibility assessment. Visit Greece says the monasteries involve staircases and uphill walking, with St Stephen's the exception.[2] The Ministry's description calls St Stephen's one of the most attainable and Holy Trinity very difficult to reach.[4] XTOUR does not know the step-free access, if any, at any of the six.

Where the official histories disagree

The sources agree on the six names and broadly on the founders, but not on every date or dedication.

• When monastic life began. Visit Greece's Meteora monasteries page says organised monasticism began in the 11th century,[3] while its route page says organised monastic life began in 1340, with Athanasius.[2] The Ministry's description places the first hermits in the 11th century.[4] Neither Visit Greece page explains the difference.
• Varlaam's main church. The Metropolis says the katholikon built in 1541/42 honours All Saints,[1] and Visit Greece agrees;[2] the Ministry's description gives the church of the same date as honouring the Three Bishops.[4]
• St Stephen's first church. The Metropolis says it was built around 1350 and rebuilt in 1545,[1] and Visit Greece's route page gives the same dates,[2] while the Ministry says the small church was built in the middle of the 16th century and decorated in 1545 or a little later.[4]
• Holy Trinity's church. The Ministry dates the church to 1475-76.[4] The Metropolis treats the sanctuary and nave as probably 14th-century and reads 1475/76, from an inscription, as a later building phase.[1]

XTOUR reports these as disagreements and does not choose between them.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not publish opening times, fees, accessibility, crowd levels or travel times for any of the six monasteries. It does not know whether a monastery closes for feast days or services beyond its published schedule; Visit Greece's advice to call before visiting is the safeguard the official pages offer.[2]

For how Meteora compares with other kinds of monastery visit in Greece, see Greek Orthodox monasteries as visits; for choosing bases across the country, the Greece travel guide.