The ancient Meteor monasteries on the tops of inaccessible rocks

They look as if Mother Nature created them and not built by people. In the north of Hellas (Greece), in the mountains of Thessaly, there are amazing Orthodox monasteries on the tops of Meteoric sandstone rocks. Meteors from the Greek ΜετέΩρα means “floating in the air”.

Once, there were more than 20 of them, now there were only six – four male and two female. Time and wars have done their work. From some — only ruins remained, from others — only memory.

And it all started more than 1000 years ago. Then hermits lived in the caves of these rocks. They had to constantly overcome a long and dangerous path to get to the church of the city of Stagi. In order to perform divine services themselves and to make their lives easier to some extent, they built the first hermitage of the Holy Spirit. Then, over the course of several centuries, other hermitages appeared on the neighboring rocks.

God only knows how the monks managed to build them at such a height (more than 600m). There were no mechanisms or insurance then. Only ropes, nets, planks and your own hands. Much later, steps were cut down in the rocks, and in some places, wooden bridges were thrown from rock to rock.

The monastery of the Holy Trinity can still be reached only by climbing 140 stone steps. Meteors are not an ordinary place. They are open to visitors but have not turned into just tourist attractions.

Ancient altars, ancient manuscripts, carved wooden iconostases, rare icons, frescoes — everything there is so imbued with the spirit of the past centuries that it is simply impossible to remain indifferent.

And it is also unrealistic to put into words the feelings that arise when visiting these monasteries.