Great Meteoron: The Cornerstone Platylithos

The Great Meteoron is the monastery that gave its name to the area and the one that marked the transition from the era of solitary hermits to the organized, coenobitic monastic life. It all started when the Athonite monk Athanasios (the later so-called "Meteorite") arrived in the area, who after living as a stylite on a rock ("pillar") above Kastraki for about 10 years, sought together with two other monks and the help of a local with experience in climbing, a way to climb the largest and most impressive "tree" of the stone forest, the "Platylithos" or "Platy Lithos".

Reaching the top in 1340, in a "place of retreat, a stone raised to an ethereal height", which he named "Meteoro", he initially founded the small church of Panagia of Meteoritissa Petra, while a little later, after 1348, he founded the church of the Transfiguration of the Savior, which is part and specifically the Holy Altar of today's imposing catholicos. After initially gathering 14 monks from nearby rocks next to him, he founded the first Coenobium of Meteora, and drew up a "statutory chart" of the operation of the monasteries. To his aid came the "monk-king", the former king John Uresis Palaiologos, who as a monk was named Joasaph and became the second founder of the monastery. The two founders were proclaimed saints and their skulls are kept in the monastery. The Great Meteoron is today a huge complex, an excellent example of Byzantine architecture, but also a very important museum. In addition to the catholicon and the 3 chapels, it is worth visiting the old bank, the hospital-nursing home, the cellar and the ossuary.

Great Meteoron - Visiting hours (T/ +302432022278):

Summer hours (1/4 - 31/10) : 9:00-15:00 Closed every Tuesday
Winter hours (1/11 - 31/3) : 9:00-14:00 Closed every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday