The Sky Monastery

A lavra on the Broad Rock, above the sea of cloud

Climb the stair to a living house on a pillar of rock. Its brethren keep the offices, bake the bread, copy books and tend the vines through a day that never stops. Then read of Meteora in Thessaly, where monks have lived on such rocks since the fourteenth century.

Begin with the ascent ›
Walk inClimb the last of the stair and go through the gate. Begin with the ascentHow anyone ever got up: the net, the windlass and the stair.

Now in the house

A day in the house passes in one hour of yours, and its year in about a day. The calendar, the clock and the seasons ›

The ascent

At Meteora, travellers were hauled up the cliff in a net

The windlass in the Sky Monastery's winch tower, the roof cut away, its hoist door open on the air
The winch tower of the Sky MonasteryThe great windlass of the stores. What the house cannot grow comes up forty-six metres of rope in the net.
Stand there now ›
Engraving of a Meteora monastery on its rock, with a timber hoist house overhanging a cliff in the foreground
The tower of the windlass at MeteoraA hoist house hangs over the cliff at the left of this plate from Christopher Wordsworth's Greece, in the edition of 1882.
Read the ascent ›

The essays

The gilded icon screen of the katholikon

The church

In the house: the Katholikon of the Transfiguration and the phiale.

At Meteora: four columns, a dome, and the painted walls.

Stand there now ›
The ossuary under the church, its shelves of skulls behind iron grilles

The bones

In the house: the vestibule of the tombs, the ossuary and the crypt.

At Meteora and Athos: three years in the earth, then a name on the brow.

Stand there now ›
The bell tower and its great dial

The hours

In the house: the house clock, the bells and the board of notices.

At Meteora and Athos: the wooden board, the iron hoop and the call at midnight.

Stand there now ›
The Hall of Wisdom, the library with its long table and globes

The books

In the house: the scriptorium and the Hall of Wisdom.

At Meteora: a library behind a cupboard, and the Gospels sold and given back.

Stand there now ›
The refectory tables laid under painted saints

Bread and wine

In the house: the Great Hall, the kitchen, the bakehouse and the winery.

At Meteora and Athos: a kitchen all chimney, a table in an apse, a great barrel.

Stand there now ›
The old hermits' house on the ledge, one cell and a walled yard

The hermits

In the house: the old hermits' house and the hermits' path.

At Meteora: the men who lived in the caves before the monasteries.

Stand there now ›
The vineyard rows either side of the vine walk

The year

In the house: the vineyard and the kitchen garden through their seasons.

At Athos and Meteora: a feast on a mountain top, and the fast at the abbot's table.

Stand there now ›
Lithograph of a dark pillar of rock at Meteora with a net hanging on a rope from the monastery at its top

“They began slowly ascending into the air, twisting round and round like a leg of mutton hanging to a bottle-jack. The rope was old and mended, and the height from the ground to the door above was, we afterwards learned, 37 fathoms, or 222 feet.”

Robert Curzon at the monastery of Barlaam, Visits to Monasteries in the Levant, 1849. The lithograph is by Louis Dupré, 1827.
See our net come up ›

The travellers

Before photographs, Meteora reached the world in the sketchbooks of those who made the journey.

Engraving of the monastery of Barlaam on its rock above a ravine
Monastery of Barlaam, on one of the rocks of MeteoraT. S. Hughes, 1820.
Lithograph of a pillar of rock with a net hanging from the monastery
MeteoraLouis Dupré, lithograph, 1827.
Engraving of the monastery of St Barlaam on its pillar, travellers below
View of the monastery of St Barlaam, at MeteoraRobert Curzon, 1849.
Engraving of the great monastery of Meteora seen across the pillars
The Great Monastery of Meteora, from the monastery of BarlaamRobert Curzon, 1849, from a drawing made on the spot by Viscount Eastnor.
Engraving of a monastery perched on a cliff at Meteora
Cliffs at MeteoraChristopher Wordsworth, Greece, edition of 1882.
Engraving of the valley and pillars of Meteora
General view of MeteoraChristopher Wordsworth, Greece, edition of 1882.
Coloured lithograph of the rocks of Meteora rising over the plain

The six houses that remain

Six monasteries still keep the hours on the rocks: the Great Meteoron, Varlaam, Roussanou, St Nicholas Anapafsas, St Stephen and Holy Trinity. Each as a traveller found it in 1849.

The six houses ›

They are living communities, not museums. For their hours and what they ask of guests, go to each house's own word.

Lithograph after O. M. von Stackelberg, 19th century.

The gate is open. The porter keeps water and bread at his window.

Walk in ›