Date: May 16, 2005
Partners for the day: Peter Van Buren (text) Neha Shetty (images)
Site(s): Meteora, brief visit to Aristotle’s school
Museum(s):
Principal Buildings/Monuments: the monasteries of Ayia Triadha, Varlaam, and Great Meteoron
Time Spent on Each Site: Meteora from ca. 9 AM to ca. 12:30 PM [ 3.5 hours] Aristotle’s school from ca. 5:30 PM to ca. 6:00 PM [ 0.5 hours]
Weather: Sunny and comfortable.
Today has been a relatively calm and contemplative day. Unlike our usual morning rush, the group had a relaxed breakfast and left the hotel at 8:45. A short bus ride took us through the hills and up to Meteora. We had stared at the cliffs in awe as the sun was setting last night, but seeing them by the light of day was a completely different experience. We were soon to discover that there are still a few magical places left in the world that not even modern rationale can rob of their power.
The natural setting of Meteora is a truly impressive natural phenomenon and has an extremely important effect on the experience of visiting the monasteries located there. In fact, it seems safe to say that the imposing beauty of the natural setting was important in the choice to build the monasteries here. A series of incredible cliffs, Meteora rises almost perpendicularly to the Thessalian Plain with very few low hills to relieve the extreme angle. The rock juts up in strange and incredible forms, creating preposterous pillars of stone that rise several hundred meters and are only perhaps fifty meters in diameter. I wondered more than once if natural rock formations like this influenced the choice of the ancient Greeks to build columns out of stone. Around these pillars, the cliffs spread out in a pattern that had plainly been generated by the forces of nature. Deep valleys filled with green trees contrast against the bold exposed rock that characterizes Meteora. The views were so perfect and amazing from so many angles, though, that it felt as though the whole place had to have been laid out intentionally. The natural beauty was simply breathtaking, and I can think of few places better suited to quietly contemplating God, life, or anything.
To say that these cliff tops were silent would be oversimplifying. While there were the natural sounds of bees buzzing and the gentle sound of the breeze, the droning hum of modern humanity that few human beings have the luxury of being able to leave with any frequency nowadays did not seem to exist on those cliffs. For that matter, it was as though the baggage you carried to the cliffs did not exist either – you were somehow absolved of who you had forced yourself to become and allowed to be who you were. It was as though all of life refocused to reflect the amazing view of the plain and the distant mountains beyond. Based on what I know of monastic life, this kind of experience seems ideally suited to bringing about the kind of thoughtful contemplation that leads one to greater understanding of God and the world.
The monasteries complemented their amazing setting beautifully and were amazing on their own. We visited the monasteries of Ayia Triadha, Varlaam, and Great Meteoron, all of which served as fascinating windows into monastic life and showed how the human structures and the structure of monastic life complemented and contrasted with the amazing quiet freedom of Meteora. All of these monasteries had once been reached by a system of ladders or being raised in a net raised by a winch, but mercifully staircases are now installed to afford us access. Ayia Triadha featured beautiful half-timbered construction, a very small but richly decorated cross and square shaped church, and the crests of several hills from which the view was extremely humbling. Somewhat larger, Barlaam featured an amazing iconostasis within its church and a museum filled with beautifully embroidered clerical vestments (the different robes and other pieces of cloth used during an Orthodox mass) and other objects used during the mass. The Great Meteoron was by far the largest monastery we visited and included a carpenter’s shop; a refectory; a large museum filled with vestments, chalices, crosses, and other objects; an impressive church with faux marbling effects and elaborately painted walls and ceiling; an ossuary filled with the bones of the monks from centuries past; and a museum containing objects from the many Balkan wars for freedom. While the shift in purpose from contained place of religious contemplation to tourist destination had definitely affected the way we experienced these monasteries, a sense of the deeply thoughtful atmosphere pervaded and kept us in its thrall throughout the time we spent at the monasteries.
We had ample time to fully absorb the amazing views and think about the simple yet profound life that religious monks and nuns had lived on the isolated cliff tops of Meteora during our bus ride to Thessalonica. The spirit of quiet contemplation we had experienced at the monasteries stayed with us, and there was little talking or discussion during the many hours we spent on the road. Most of us either slept, listened to music, or read, but the desire of each of us to stay within his or her thoughts seemed uniform.
Late in the afternoon, we stopped to visit the site of the school Phillip II built for Aristotle to educate his son, Alexander the Great. The school was a simple compound consisting of a stoa-like building, a few natural caves filled with stalactites, and a stream running through the center. Apparently, Alexander and a number of sons of Macedonian nobles spent two years here with Aristotle, spending much of their time in discussion on benches placed around the compound. It seemed surprising that a great king like Phillip II would choose to have his son educated in a place far removed from any city. Cities in the Classical and Hellenistic world are the centers of culture and learning. However, on second thought, the relative calm of the natural setting and the lack of nearby distractions probably made it more conducive to the learning process. In hindsight, those were two of the key reasons I chose Dartmouth over colleges located in cities.
After we had strolled through the school, we boarded the bus and after another hour or so in the bus arrived in Thessaloniki. Not having seen much of it yet, we really can’t comment. However, you can be sure you will hear plenty about it in tomorrow’s posting after our free day!