Meteora is the eighth wonder of the world
Description:
"Fantastic." Super! – it is such exclamations that break out from everyone who first visits Meteora. Huge blue-black rocks with a giant palisade rise up among the Thessaly valley. Just the sight of these stone blocks causes mixed with delight horror, which is replaced by amazement when you drive closer and see on top of each "pillar" built houses, churches - entire towns in miniature. This is the famous Meteora, which in free translation from Greek means “floating in the air”.
The monastic republic on these rocks was founded in the 14th century, when a monk named Athanasius came here from the Holy Mount Athos and founded the first monastery on the largest stone. Later monasteries were added on the neighboring rocks. The monks chose such an unusual location not by chance. They decided to escape from worldly fuss and temptations, pursuing another, purely practical goal: to create an inaccessible refuge for enemies. The Turks for 400 years, after all, could not get into these monasteries-fortresses on sheer rocks.
24 monasteries were created, but only 6:4 monasteries have survived to this day - the Transfiguration Monastery (Big Meteors), Varlaam, the Holy Trinity, Nicholas Anapavsas and 2 women - St. Stephen and St. Barbara (Russanu). Monks protested against the opening of monasteries for tourists. Some of them even left Meteora and moved to Athos, which has a special status and is open only to pilgrims. But the government insisted on its own, because tourism income is one of the main sources of income for Greece and the authorities are trying to attract more foreign visitors to the country by any means.