More things Byzantine in Kastoria

        We started our Thursday morning in Kastoria at the Byzantine Museum; we were the only two visitors in the entire building and far outnumbered by the museum staff!  They hung out watching us as we worked through the exhibition area, offering bits of information as we browsed.  I wondered how many days it had been since their last visitors to the collection...

        From the Byzantine Museum, which is perched at the very top of the hill at town center, we made our way downhill and tried to gain entry into a few more churches.  The Panagia Koumbelidhiki had the all-too-familiar padlock hanging in front of the door.  The building dates from between the 10th (the apse) and the 15th (the narthex) centuries.  But it is best-known for the striking dome.  This had to be completely restored after it was destroyed by Italian bombing in 1940.  Kastoria actually suffered quite a bit of damage during WWII and the following civil war.

Dome of the Panagia Koumbelikdhiki

       Agioi Tris was another church closed for current restoration work.  The metal stovepipe chimney protruding from the upper story windows was esp. incongruous!  It was belting out smoke, which collected in a black smudge beneath the wooden eves (a little worrisome).  But we took a peek at a few exterior frescoes and moved on...

The Church of the Agioi Tris

Fresco and a few modern icons over main doorway.

Badly damaged fresco over the lintel on the west end of the church.  I like the carved wooden door frame.

        I didn't get any photos of the outside of the little church dedicated to St. Ioannis Prodromos (John the Baptist).  But it was actually open, and the lighting provided some great shots of the apse, including this very worn/tattered icon of Christ.  Somehow, I think it is all the more beautiful for its cracks and tears.

Apse and iconostasis inside Agios Ioannis

Icon of Christ, backlit

Tomb of Pavlos Melas

Sculpture bust over funerary monument

        The Taxiarches tis Metropoleos also happens to contain the tomb of Pavlos Melas in its north aisle.  Melas was a Greek nationalist and military leader, associated with the 'Macedonian Struggle' of 1904-8.  Unfortunately, he was assassinated in 1906 by Bulgarians in a nearby village to Kastoria.  Daniel and I stopped at the Macedonian royal tombs (including that of Philip the IInd, Alexander's father) in Vergina on our way to Thessaloniki.  And we saw lots of ongoing Macedonian loyalties/sentiment throughout northern Greece.  History can be a very fluid exercise, especially in defining its relation to the present!

Pavlos Melas monument with fresh flags/flowers.

Church of the Taxiarches (tis Metropoleos)

Self-portrait of two Byzantine travelers (Byzantinist, rather)

        As I've mentioned, there were lots and lots of Byzantine (and post-Byzantine) churches in Kastoria.  I won't post all my pictures.  Just a few top picks!  The first is the little, 9th-century Church of the Taxiarches next to the Metropolitan Cathedral.  It is the oldest surviving church and has a number of frescoes on the exterior.  Good thing - since we couldn't actually go inside!  We found a lot of the churches closed and locked up.  It seems that once most of the summer tourists have left, it is restoration season...

Front doors and lunette, Church of the Taxiarches

Closeup of the Virgin and Child from lunette

        The church had a striking set of donor portraits along the exterior of the south wall.  The frescoes aren't in great shape, so my attention was distracted by the graffiti.  Most interesting were several graffiti drawings of ships

Donor portraits along the south wall of the church

Sailing ship graffito!

Another one...

Evening walk

The town of Kastoria on Lake Orestiadha

        Wednesday must have been one of our best days, weather-wise.  After we'd arrived at Kastoria (and found the hotel and checked in), Daniel and I decided to walk around the peninsula to the Mavriotissa monastery.  It was a good hike.  But unlike our past few days at Meteora, here the ground remained lovely, level, and flat, following the water's edge.  There were also a number of locals out for their daily constitutional.  I'm sure we all enjoyed the blue sky, doubled in the reflection of the lake.

Another view of lake and sky, blue reflecting blue.

        The monastery and its churches were a bit further than we expected, although we kept going.  We'd already learned the value of persistence in Kastraki - our hotelier gave us directions to the Paradhisos taverna (delicious), which he indicated was just 500 meters further down the main road.  Maybe 500 meters seems longer in the dark, but we turned around too soon and then had to retrace our steps at least twice!  At the Mavriotissa monastery, we arrived about the same time as a bus load of Greek tourists.  It was probably one of the same buses that overtook us on the road.  Not quite enough room for all involved to stay on the pavement.  Daniel and I usually stepped off and waited for the traffic to move past!

Tour group at the Mavriotissa Monastery

Entrance to the 14th-C chapel

        One of the scenes painted on the exterior of the chapel was St. Sisoes' discovery of the tomb of Alexander the Great.  It serves as a memento mori and reminder of the common end for all humankind. ("Oh, Death, who can escape thee?").  I liked the little skeleton faces.  I'm not sure who is in there with Alexander, however...

 Skeleton of Alexander the Great (and friends?)

St. Sisoes the Great discovering the tomb of Alexander

        We encountered another little Byzantine church along the way to the Mavriotissa monastery and back; this wasn't open, but I liked the stained glass icon of Saint Nikolaos.  These brown and yellow signposts for historical monuments were ubiquitous in Kastoria.  There were Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches everywhere!

Church of Agios Nikolaos on the Profitis Ilias peninsula

Stained glass window icon!

Kastoria

View from the Filoxenia Hotel

        Finally!  I'm back to posting pictures from my trip at the end of October!!!  I'm already starting to count down until my trip home for Christmas, but wanted to finish sharing stories and images from this fall (maybe even get a few current events up here before I leave).

        Daniel and I went from Meteora to Kastoria on Weds., 21 October.  Kastoria is a little town in the middle of Lake Orestiadha, or rather, lies on the thin strip of land between the shore and a peninsula jutting out into the water.  It grew wealthy on a thriving fur trade from the Middle Ages on - at least until the local beaver went extinct in the 19th century.  =(  Supposedly the name of the town originates from the Greek word for beaver ('kastori').  And Kastoria still hosts an international fur fair each year.  We arrived with hopes of seeing as many Byzantine churches as possible.  There are over 50 Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches scattered about!  Most of these were built as private chapels within the large mansions (arhontika) belonging to old fur families in the town.

The beautiful lakefront

 More water and rooftops

        The lake does provide an incredible setting (as well as some delicious trout - which I got to sample for dinner).  Our hotel, the Filoxenia, was perched on the eastern edge of town, as the elevation rose again toward the hill of the central peninsula.  Getting to the hotel, however, proved to be its own challenge!  Turns out the route that the hotel provided on their website and which Google maps confirmed in its suggested directions was the ONLY possible way of getting there.

        We spent maybe 20-30 minutes trying to navigate the tiny, twisting streets on our own before we realized this, and retraced our steps in order to start from the beginning.  It involved some pretty spectacular driving on Daniel's part, I have to say!  Esp. that one alley - Daniel ended up backing down a ramp that was more or less (less?) the exact width of our car.  He had a bit of help - a local who was doing repairs at the Church of Agios Georgios (which looks like it has a connecting road up to the Odos Georgiou Palaiologou, where we were headed) and who came out to gesture when we needed to go a bit more to the left or right on our way down.  I learned what the color coding on our town map meant.  The little white roads were one-way lanes.  Sometimes staircases!  As in the mysterious connecting route that wasn't there between Agios Georgios and our destination.  The yellow roads were the only ones that could support two-way traffic!

        Anyway, after we managed to find the hotel, we decided to do the rest of our exploring by foot.  It was much more enjoyable!  =)

A few parting shots

     The number of photos that I took in Meteora far surpass those from any other location on our trip, especially in relation to the amount of time spent at each place!  I have several good excuses for this phenomenon, however.  Here are just a few more that I had to include in the blog posts...

Agiou Rossanou tucked away among the rocky landscape.

Close-up view.

Windlass mechanism and old platform for bringing up supplies and/or visitors at the monastery of Agia Triada.

Agia Triada from below (w/ the tiniest hint of color in the foliage!)

The rocks are pretty fantastic in their own right.

Agiou Stefanou and a bit of blue sky.

Icons of Place

     Agiou Nikolaou Anapavsa had a number of icons available for pilgrims and visitors to buy (most of them made with prints affixed to a wooden panel, rather than being painted).  Daniel and I both browsed the giftshop inside and came away with our own souvenirs.  Daniel purchased an icon of Saint Catherine and I got a small icon of the Transfiguration.  Since the main church of the Great Meteoron is dedicated to the Metamorphosis (the Greek name for the same event in the life of Christ) and it also figures in the 6th-century apse at Sinai, I thought it provided a nice memento and way of connecting the two places.

     However, and more to the point of this post, I was also intrigued by the following "icon," which I found in the lineup:

     Do you see it?  Propped up at center is a photograph of Kalambaka and the Meteora rocks lit up by night, also laminated and fixed to a rectangular piece of wood.  But is it an icon?  A portrait of a holy place?  Does it count?  This is my question - and likewise in trying to gauge response to/interpretation of the topographical images of Mount Sinai and the Monastery of St. Catherine that appeared at the end of the 16th century in my dissertation...

     The Meteora plaque doesn't have an accompanying inscription or nomina sacra.  I was also struck by the metal bosses, like thumbtacks, that decorate the edges of the image.  And there is a triangular metal hook at the top of the wooden board that would allow the panel to be hung, while all of the other icons have grooves carved out for the same purpose in the back of their supports.  Do these details matter?  Do they help differentiate between a consecrated and authorized image (eikon) and a scenic view, even if one that represents a locus sanctus? I don't know.

Climbing around on rocks

Daniel, 'Mountain King.'

     We had fun, in between our monastery visits, simply climbing around on the rocks themselves.  Besides, there was such a great view - anywhere and everywhere!  Getting back down wasn't always as easy as getting up...  but we managed.  =)

Now I'm at the top, but I have the camera, so pictures are of Daniel scrambling down ahead of me...

As it turns out, I'm not so good at looking into the camera!

Our view...

     This last image is taken with the aid of my optical zoom, but it captures the incredible vistas we had over the Thessalian plain.  The Pineios river cuts a wide swath, but is really just a little trickle between its banks.  Because the sun kept coming and going with the cloud buildup in the afternoon, we saw some pretty amazing shafts of light falling across the landscape, as well.

The afternoon clouds and more piercing sunlight.

Agiou Nikolaou Anapavsa

     On our second day in Meteora, our goal was to visit the remaining five monasteries.  Each was slightly different, and each had its own charms.  I won't try to catalogue all of them here!  However, our first visit of the day may have been my favorite - the monastery dedicated to Agiou Nikolaou Anapavsa.  Here's our starting point at the bottom (and not far from Doupiani House, actually)...

     We had to climb several series of steps; some fixed in the natural slope of ground with wooden beams, some built as staircases over the terrain, some paved with flagstone and held in placed by poured concrete.  As we reached the foot of the monastery, we confronted several different means of making the final ascent:

Wooden ladder suspended below a window (not actually an option for us, although an old-fashion way of reaching the monasteries).

The modern lift, promising a smooth ride.

Two paths diverged... and we chose the stairs!

Looking back down, once we'd made the climb.

     We weren't supposed to take photos inside the monastery churches, which I tried to respect.  The main church of Agiou Nikolaou Anapavsa was decorated by Theophanes of Crete in the early 16th C; I was happy to the Dormition of St. Ephrem - love those scenes of desert monastic life!  There's also a nice image of Adam naming the animals in the narthex, as well.  I think they both share the western wall, but the church might not be exactly correctly oriented because of the limited space on top of its rocky pinnacle.

Courtyard at the top of Agiou Nikolaou Anapavsa

And here's a bit of bare surface revealing the meteoron itself!

Surprise, surprise!

     I knew I couldn't get very far in posting photos & stories from Daniel's visit without needing to include this moment...  =)  Here it is:

     After we had arrived in Meteora, checked out the Great Meteoron (which was closed on Tuesday - each of the monasteries followed different opening hours and picked a different day of the week on which to shut.  This meant a lot of careful cross-checking in several guidebooks beforehand to make sure we could see all of them during our time there.  And then, of course, the actual hours were different from what was published in the guidebooks!  Thankfully, they have mostly standardized.  Not what one might expect in Greece!), and checked into our hotel, our plan was walk around and continuing exploring the fantastical landscape.

     The Rough Guide suggested several hikes from Kastraki to various abandoned chapels and caves in the immediate neighborhood.  We paused at the front desk to ask the hotel proprietor how to find the trail to Agion Pnevma.  Her advice was to try going the next day; while we should be able to reach the cave-chapel, the sun would be setting.  Our trip back would be in the dark...  Unfortunately, we never did make the excursion.  We'll have to do it another time!

     Our walk ended up being much shorter, just to the base of the closest hill of bare rock.  There was a small, stone chapel tucked below it and we decided to go up to see if it was open.  It wasn't.  But the courtyard around the chapel was well-kept, with roses blooming along the side of the wall.

     Behind the chapel, we discovered a wooden pavilion and I suggested sitting down to take in the view.  There was a brief pause, and Daniel looked as though he was focusing very intently before he began to speak.  The first thing he said clued me in immediately, that I'd been very patient so far on the trip and he didn't want to keep me waiting much longer...  I had a moment of brief panic.  This was it!  What was I supposed to do now?  Oh, right.  Just listen.  I already knew what my answer was going to be.  =)

So it was in Meteora that Daniel asked me to marry him.  I said yes!  

     He picked a lovely spot.  Although it was obvious that he thought a great deal about what he was going to say, he admitted that the location was a bit up in the air.  (Get it? "Meteora?" "Up in the air?")

     Meteora was probably the place I was most excited about returning to and sharing with Daniel.  I had visited it all of 3-4 hours last summer on an excursion organized by the language program in Thessaloniki.  We were stuck on a bus except for our strictly guided tours of two monasteries and about half an hour of 'free time' to browse the gift shops!  Pure agony.  I knew I had to come back.  At this point, it is definitely my most favorite place in Greece.  =)  And I think we will be back!