It was a long day of driving to this next short stop. The first thing you notice arriving in the small town of Kalambaka is those crazy rocks racing for the sky. With the exception of the gas station right across the street, the view from the balcony of my hostel was pretty awesome! Those rocks loom no matter where you are in town though.

The town is called Kalambaka, but the area is referred to as Meteora. As early as the 8th century, hermits and religious acetics began occupying some of the nooks and crannies of these rocks. In the 14th century, the first monasteries started being built on top of the rocks to protect themselves from the growing threat of the Ottomans. Access was only by rope ladders which the monks simply pulled up if they didn’t want to be bothered.

Today you can visit the remaining monasteries and hike around the hills all you want. My first target was the small 15th century Monastery of Saint Nicholas. Also they don’t use rope ladders anymore. Now there are stairs carved into the rocks and in some cases bridges. The 15th century frescoes inside were really cool to see.

I quickly caught on that I was going to see tons of beautiful 14th century paintings today, but I was not going to be allowed to take any pictures. We’ll see. Hehe!

Climbing up to all of these places involved some neck breaking picture taking. It’s just fascinating the way they’re all perched on top of these rocks. I’ve seen some gravity defying architecture before, but this is something else.

I also quickly caught on that I was going to enjoy the views of these monasteries more than the monasteries themselves. The chapels and the paintings were amazing, but they are also so crowded with people. There are a lot of giant tour busses going this way and that. And this is the off season! I can’t imagine being here in the summer. No thanks!

In the pic above of the Monastery of Varlaam you can see the bridge and the rock stairs to get up there. This rock was first occupied by a hermit named Varlaam in 1350. Below, you can see that I was bad and took a pic inside the chapel. Jesus peaking around the corner in that dome definitely felt judgmental.

I walked all the way up to the Monastery of the Great Meteoron to discover it was closed that day. Oh well, it’s the only one I wasn’t able to go into. Anyway, it’s the largest monastery of the bunch and was founded by Saint Athanasios in the 14th century.

Once at the top I got a great pic of the stairs going up. That tower on the side of the cliff is just crazy! I also got a great shot of the back side of Varlaam. From some angles they look like they’re just on the side of the mountain, until you walk around to discover that, nope, they’re all resting on top of these incredible spires. Awesome!

Five hundred or so years ago there were twenty four monasteries in the area. Now there are supposedly only six. I did find a seventh, though. More on that later. Occasionally you can spot the ruins of former monasteries hiding on other rocks.

Right in the middle of everything is the main viewpoint. This is just the backside of what I see from my hostel. The four monasteries I’ve visited so far are all in the pic below on the far right.

Here’s a close up. Tiny Saint Nicholas is far left with Rousanos to the right of that. Great Meteoron is on the highest hill in the centerish with Varlaam just down and to the right of that. This view was just incredible!

At the same viewpoint turning left I could spot my next target, the Monastery of the Holy Trinity. Once again it looks like it’s just on flat ground until I got further down the road and saw it from a different angle. Wow!

There’s a hike down to the bottom, then you climb up the stairs carved right into the side of the rock and through a little tunnel too. Once inside, I was bad again. I was all alone in that chapel for a couple of minutes and I couldn’t resist.

Apparently, the Holy Trinity Monastery’s claim to fame is that it was featured in For Your Eyes Only in 1981. For me, the best part was the view out over Kalambaka, seen above. I also got another great view of the whole monastery before moving on.

The last monastery I visited was the Monastery of Saint Stephan. It’s a little less precarious than the others and there’s only a small stone bridge to cross over to it. It’s also the only one (I think) that’s now a full time nunnery. And yes, there are still cats everywhere I go.

With all the tremendous views, crazy rock formations, precariously balancing monasteries, beautiful 14th century artwork, and hordes of tourists, the most historically significant and oldest church in the area is the Holy Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. This very unassuming church sits at the highest part of town, just at the bottom of the crazy rocks, and gets almost no visitors.

The Holy Church of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary was originally built on this spot in the 4th or 5th century. Not all, but most of the building is original, which is incredible by itself. But the best part is the remarkable 11th century paintings that cover every wall and the marble columns taken from Roman temples during its original construction.

I can’t believe that with all the people and tour busses nobody comes to this church. On the other hand, maybe that’s a good thing. It ended up being the highlight of this stop for me though. Moving on, in the morning on my way out of town, I did a quick morning hike beyond the rocks to the Holy Monastery Ypapanti. Founded in 1367, this is the seventh monastery I mentioned earlier. You can’t really go inside as far as I could find out, but it’s a pretty incredible looking place.

As I said, Kalambaka was just a quick stop. Now it’s time for me to head further west and explore those mountains in the distance, seen in all of my big viewpoint pics above. The next stop will be a longer one, but don’t worry, I’ll be posting very soon…