Great Meteoron Monastery

Why go

The Holy Monastery of the Great Meteoron, dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Saviour, is a working Orthodox monastery that its own website dates to about 1340 and to St Athanasios of Meteora, who named the rock 'Meteoron'. The monastery's pages describe a katholikon completed in 1544/45 with wall paintings by the Cretan painter Tzortzis, a refectory of 1557, and the old infirmary of 1572, now used as a museum of icons, manuscripts and other sacred treasures; Visit Greece instead places the museum in the refectory. The monastery's visit page asks visitors to dress respectfully and gives examples: men may not enter in bermudas, shorts or sleeveless shirts, and women may not wear trousers or sleeveless tops. The same page publishes a seasonal timetable with weekly closing days and annual closure periods, and says the schedule can change by decision of the monastery, so check it before going. This record is the monastery itself, not Meteora, the rock formation that Visit Greece describes as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and not the town of Kalambaka.