The Monastery of Rosanou at Meteora

Gordon and I visited Meteora in 1990. It was my favorite place in Greece. How they managed to construct the Byzantine monasteries on the tops of the barren and inaccessible rocks before there were roads or any modern conveniences defies the imagination.  Roussanou monastery is thought to have been built in 1288 and renovated as a monastery in 1545. It contains beautiful frescoes of the Cretan School, done in 1560.  We visited Varlaam Monastery which looks very much like the photo above. Inside the rather stark building is the most colorful Byzantine chapel we have ever seen. Every inch of the walls is covered with sacred art in the bright colors and gold leaf characteristic of this period. It takes your breath away! There's even a tiny gift shop where we bought little icons of Jesus and Mary to take home to our friends and family.  For a detailed description of the sacred monasteries of Meteora, visit Dilos Holiday World. This information about Varlaam Monastery is from their website: "It was built as late as 1517 by the brothers Theophanes and Nectarios, scions of a rich family from Janena, on the site of the old hermitage of the hermit Varlaam. The frescoes in the chapel of All Saints are by the famous hagiographer Franco Catellano, done in 1548; the Narthex in 1566. The chapel of the Three Hierarchs was renovated in 1627."

Photo used by permission of anthropologist and photographer, Martin Gray, who visited us in Gainesville, Florida, in 1998. For more information about sacred sites visit Martin's beautiful website, Places of Peace and Power, which discusses his pilgrimage journeys, features many of his photographs and writings, lists calendar details of upcoming slide show tours and more. Martin has photographed 900 sacred sites in 40 countries. There is also a beautiful meditation to heal the Earth on Martin's website. http://www.sacredsites.com/

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