The Monastery of Varlaam

As the post on the Meteora monasteries was getting a bit long yesterday, I skipped the close-up on one of the monasteries. We drove up to all the monasteries for shots on the outside but visited only the Monastry of Varlaam. It's a lot of climbing to visit these monasteries so we just picked one for now and we will be getting back here to visit another. So here we go with Meteora part two (another long post).

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The monastery of Varlaam is the one we are going to visit today. In this shot you can see the path up to the monastery and in the middle of the shot the bridge to get there. The tower on the left is the bell tower the tower on the right is one off the chapel towers.

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Through the gate and on to the bridge, sorry no shot of the bridge.

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These steps await you when you have past the bridge to get up to the monastery. Take in mind that until the 1920ths there where no steps to enter these monasteries, just ladders or a trip up in a rope net on a rope. So no complaining on these steps.

So now we are up here at the second largest monastery of the Meteora Monasteries, so a little pause to talk some history and to rest from the steps ;)

In 1350 a daring ascetic named Varlaam ascended to the rock and build three small churches, a small cell and a water tank. After his death the rock was abandoned for 200 years. In 1517/1518 the priest-monks Theophanes and Nektarios Apsarades reached the rock. Two wealthy brothers from Ioanina. They renovated the little church of the Three Hierarchs and they erected the tower. The other living buildings where build around this. So starting the Monastery of Varlaan, named after the founder of the church on the top. They also built in 1541/1542 the central church of the monastery (the katholikon) dedicated to All Saints.

Some short (fun) facts before the photo's:

• The books say that the transportation of the materials lasted 22 years and the building only 20 days.
• Since 1350, the ascent to the monastery was made by wooden ladders, each of which had about 25 rungs.
• From the early part of the 19th century, they created steps carved in the rock with a bridge between them.

It's not allowed to take shots inside the chapels or in the museum so use a search engine to search for shots on official sites.

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Ok we are inside the monastery to arrive at a nice looking courtyard. Lets have a look around here before we enter the buildings.

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The towers of the chapels inside the church. Beautiful on the inside bu no pictures from inside these chapels.

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Some beautiful blooming roses up here on the mountain.

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Lets have a look over the fence for some depth perspective.

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You must have nerves of steel to work on a construction side like this.

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Lets go and have a look at the clock tower.

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The bells made quite some noise when standing close to them.

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Controlled electronically now days.

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So lets walk back to the buildings and up the stairs for a look inside.

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A last look over the shoulder at this beautiful looking garden courtyard.

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Up the stairs and in we go trough these great looking massive wooden doors.

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In the entry hall a nice fresco on display, in this room it was still allowed to take some shots.

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Such beautiful decorations on the ceilings....

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also sometimes need a new lick of paint. Looks like a monks work ;)

Now the scree ngoes black as we enter the church for a quick visit to come back out at the next views over the monastery.

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All roofs look very nice and kept good over the years and years.

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On route to the loading docks there is a small door on the right. Lets go in for a quick peek.

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Some strong spans on this giant barrel.

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A huge storage barrel that was used in the old days for storing the drinks.

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At the loading dock where freight is now lifted electronically but in the old days it was done by hand.

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The now used storage container for lifting goods, used to be a rope net in the old days. And remember that also people where lifted up that way as we proceed to the viem down from here.

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Quite a height, overlooking the gardens downstairs. You have to be sure you don't forget something upstairs when you are going to work in the garden. Besides these gardens the monks also have lots and lots of bee hives producing delicious honey. This honey is for sale in the small gift shops in the monasteries.

So this ends this tour. For our next destination I am thinking about some Florence shots or a nice Rome post. But for now thanks for taking the tour.
Feel free to leave a comment for your guide :)


Gear: Nikon 1J1
Nikon 1 VR 10-30mm
Nikon 1 VR 30-110mm
Edit: Lightroom

Unless stated otherwise all photos used in my posts are taken and owned by myself, if you wish to use any of my images please contact me

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