Varlaam monastery

Varlaam is the second largest of the Meteora monasteries and one of the four still inhabited by monks, perched on a sandstone and conglomerate pillar that rises 373 metres above the Pineios valley near Kalambaka. It takes its name from a hermit, Varlaam, who climbed the rock in the fourteenth century and built a small church and cells there. After his death the site was abandoned until 1517, when two brothers from a prominent Ioannina family, Theophanes and Nektarios Apsarades, reoccupied it and built the monastery that stands today.

The main church was completed in the 1540s, and its interior is the reason Varlaam is a highlight of any visit to Meteora. In 1548 the painter Frangos Katelanos of Thebes, one of the leading masters of post-Byzantine art, covered it with frescoes, including a vast Last Judgement; the narthex was painted in 1566 by two brothers, also from Thebes. The colour and detail have survived remarkably well.

Varlaam also preserves the machinery of its isolation. For centuries the only way up was by removable ladders, or in a net hauled up on a rope, and the old windlass tower with its winch and net still stands on the edge of the cliff. Another survivor is a huge sixteenth-century oak barrel that once stored water for the community. A museum displays relics, icons and liturgical treasures, and is one of the largest at Meteora. Today visitors cross a bridge and climb a stairway of around 195 steps cut into the rock.

Meteora as a whole, with its six surviving monasteries, was inscribed by UNESCO in 1988. Varlaam is about a ten-minute walk from the Great Meteoron, so the two are easily combined.

Getting there

The monastery lies above Kalambaka and the village of Kastraki; the regional capital Trikala is about 22 km away. The nearest airport is Kozani National Airport (KZI), about 65 km away, though most visitors arrive overland. Intercity buses from Athens and elsewhere run to Trikala, from where a local bus runs to Kalambaka about once an hour, taking some 45 minutes.