Meteora is a rock formation in Northwestern Greece, that holds atop it, Eastern Orthodox monasteries. Kalambaka is a city at the foothills of these monasteries that makes access to the monasteries easier for the tourists, it has a dessert by its name that is a pudding of sorts with walnut cake and condensed milk! Yet the monks of the monasteries built them during the times of the prosecution of the Christians by the Turks, the Ottoman empire. The monks fled to Meteora and built their monasteries on top of the over 500 m high rock formations who’s tops are unconnected to any part of the land, soaring into the sky. The sight of these rocks with the monasteries atop them is stunning to say the least, and the climb up to the monasteries, lets say is quite a hike. The way the monks went up is too interesting though as they did not climb by foot, or use cable cars like they use now, they would be airlifted through a rope cage, a net cage, not every different from how fishes are pulled out of water! The net cages would pull up a bunch of monks every once in a while through an elaborate turnstile pulley system. Thankfully we trekked up to the monastery!
Today the monks use a cable car to reach atop to the monasteries, some of the monasteries have been converted to nunneries, yet their schedules remain gruelling as they embark on a journey to look inwards. The monastic cells have tiny windows, though with a spectacular views to encourage the monks to look inwards. Every monastery or nunnery has a church of the Greek Orthodox type that looks stunning with art in gold covering the walls. The art is filled with symbolism to tell a story to even those who could not read or write. The cross around the halos were used to depict Jesus Christ across his different ages, while the hand gestures of the monks painted gave away whether the monk was a saint or a martyr. While the monasteries today are a huge tourist attraction they continue to remain centres of worship. The beautiful elevations of these centres of internal reflection make for a stunning view during the golden hours of the day, of sunrise and sunset.
From the ground up Kalambaka has all the makings of a small greek town and serves up delicious fare of almost all cuisines, while up at Meteora, the priests each a largely what I term a spiritual fare. Today the monks also make their own merchandise and products including honey, cheese and mysterious beeswax that they claim can cure any issue of the body and mind, simply by rubbing some onto the skin or ingesting it to cure a common cold! The monks are in black for their day to day dressing and wear white and golden robes during important events. Even today children receive communion from these monks. In Greece every baby born is considered to be in the Christian fold of Greek Orthodoxy. Monks voluntarily enter the fold abiding to the tough diktats, giving up all their possessions to the church and are free to leave if they wish to. The higher purpose of their lives, to be closer to their Gods is vastly cherished and chased in their lifetime!
Vedasri Siddamsetty 