Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Kristatos and the monks





It might seem like an inpenetrable fortress in the film, requiring super-human climbing skills from a septegenarian Roger Moore, but the ascent is fairly moderate. Agia Triada is one of six monasteries in the Meteora range in north west Greece, base for villain Kristatos in Bond film For Your Eyes Only, but more importantly the spiritual home to monks since the 11th century. Rather than relying on shoe laces or using Q's latest gadget, it required a 30 minute climb via a path carved into the side. Another monastery is the Varlaam, founded in the 16th century, by an anchorite monk, where you can buy incense, CDs of Byzantine music, and a short book "what is orthodoxy?". The Meteora region is stunning, no doubt: a range of rock pillars that dominate like giant granite collossus on the edge of the Hellenic plain. At dusk, monastery bells sound off in sequence, humbling the inhabitants of the town below. The monks themselves were naturally elusive. The largest of the monasterys - Megalo Meteoro - is a complex of living quarters, kitchen, refectory (where preserved plates, goblets, candlesticks are on display). This monastery has a larger museum than the others, with wider Greek history, in particular military atire and paintings from the Balkans wars (1912-13) and the campaign against the Axis (1940-41). A Nazi soldier is seen falling down from a pillar, these monoliths were totally impregnable once. The museum also holds Byzantine scripts of early philosophers: Plato, Aristotle. To round it all off, the in house ossuary holds nearly 100 human skulls.



http://www.greecetravel.com/meteora/monasteries.html

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