Athos Agion Oros

922 - Facebook group: Allow women to....

Women against the avaton.
hv

921 - 2009 Trip to Athos: Roussikon day 1 - 3

The monastery of Agios Panteleimonos or Roussikon was the first place we visited.

Pilgrims waiting for the boat to arrive at the quay of Roussikon - 27/5/2009

The Agios Panteleimon boat - 27/5/2009

Plan of the monastery

This picture is shot at number 1a of the plan: two (classical?) marble columns with Corinthian capitals, topped with bronze crosses

Nowadays there is a path between 1a and the building at nr 2 - photo thanks to Jitze

The roof of the portal with the doctor Ag. Panteleimos holding a medical instrument and a box, the Panaghia, and saints and kings

The newly painted monastery, with the double church on the top floor (D and E)

Near the double church: view from above - thanks to Jitze

The door the katholikon (3), a throne and images of Jezus and Panteleimon

Seldom seen interiour of the katholikon of Roussikon (unsharp picture, but nevertheless posted)

Overview of the courtyard / Katholikon of Roussikon - photo by Jitze

The heavy doors that protect the monastery

This ends a visit inside the monastery walls. The guys that did not see monastery before,went to see the churches, Herman and I went outside to see the ruins. Follow this blog to see the pictures of these ruins!

Wim, 20/11

920 - Athos in National Geographic magazine december 2009

In a couple of days the december 2009 magazine of National Geopraphic is for sale in the shops with a special item about Athos. Here a preview from the National Geographic site:

Wim, 16/11

919 - Panteleimonos in its heyday

This is an interesting picture. What you see is the Russian monastery of Panteleimonos but it is an artist impression not the real situation. For instance you see a large church behind the large guesthouse on the waterfront but by my knowledge there has never been a church of that size on that spot. I doubt that the many buildings in the background are historical correct. But the scene gives an impression of the period before 1917 when thousands of Russian monks were living in the monastery. Nowadays the monastery is inhabited by less then 100 monks.

Early 20th century postcard.

hv

918 - Svetlana Medvedev visits Athos by boat

Last Friday the 6th of november, Svetlana Medvedev, Russia's first lady, booked a trip of 4.5 hours on the Johanna boat, starting in Ouranopolis. The boat stopped near Dafni some 500 meters from the cost and a boat with a delegation of monks from Simonospetras and Panteleimon came to bless her and to show her icons. The next stop was near Ag. Anna, where the monks showed her reliqs. On both places she had a talk with the monks. Ms. Medvedev said she seemed impressed by the monastic environment.

No photos of her trip are available, this is one from Kelliotes blog.

With this visit she follows her husband, who paid a unofficial visit to Athos in oktober 2007 as Vice President of Russia.
Wim, 12/11 (again thanks to Giannis)

917 - wild boar at Jovanitsa

Giannis from our "fellow" Athos-blog in Greece send us these pictures of trees that have been damaged by wild boar.

Megali Jovanitsa: the small purple arrow showes the spot of the tree.

Funny how the two last posts, 915 and 916, come together in this one!
Wim, 12/11 (thanks Giannis)

916 - WG Trip to Athos: day 1 - 2

After passing Thibais and Monoxylites the boat arrives at the first stop Megali Jovanitsa. This is the harbour of the Chilandariou monastery.

A good dirt road leads directly to this Serb monastery - 27/9/2009

Soon after you will see this kellion: the name is not known to me, it lies near the area called Patitiria.

And then the beautifull harbour of Sografou appears:

The same place in 1986:

And not far from here the harbour Konstamonitou is found:

After this building the first real Athos monastery Dochiariou comes into sight (with its ugly red crane - why do they keep it standing there for such a long time??):

Detail of the monastery Dochiariou.

And the next monastery Xenofontos follows soon:

And after passing the small cell of Agios Nikolaos (?) you will see the majestic buildings of Panteleimonos.

Finally we arrive at the Holy Mountian and we start our trip at Panteleimonos:

Wim, 11/11/09

915 - Wild boar

Many footpaths during our stay on Athos in September 2009 were in a way "attacked" by animals. There was fresh churned soil and stones had clearly been moved. We think that this was caused by wild boar searching for food under the stones.

Here the path is churned by wild boar.

Wild boar droppings. The soil and this were the only evidence that they were there but we did not see or hear one.

The pictures were taken a few klilometers outside Vatopedi direction Esfigmenou. At first it is a coastal path and where you see the beach on the photo you leave the coast and go over the ridge.

hv

914 - souvenirs from Athos

If you visit the shops in Dafni just before leaving Athos one is tempted to buy all kinds of souvenirs, but what I like best is the products that were grown from the land that you just visited. So I did not only buy some bottles of wine from Mount Athos, but also herbs (timian and oregani), and olive oil and honey.
The honey comes from a kellion called Marouda and the (excellent!) olive oil from Prof. Eliou.

Marouda honey

Prof. Eliou olive oil

Wim Voogd, 9/11

913 - Athos trip starting in Ierissos

The Ierissos boat
Photo's taken in may 2008. A different way to spend your time on Athos: Instead of trekking to different monasteries for a place to sleep, stay in one Monastery (in this case Vatopedi) and walk from there one day to Pantokratoros and the other day to Esfigmenou and so on.
Here you see a complete photoaccount.

The mobile office of the Holy Executive of the Holy Mountain. They issue your Diamoniterion (permit to stay) if you are on the list.

Apparently you can take the bus to Ierissos and get your Diamoniterion on the pier!
hv

912 - Chair

Painting by Theodore Jacques Rallis born in 1852). The location is the exo-narthex of the church of Vatopedi.

Detail. Keliotes found the picture of the painting because the painting is on auction by Bonham, England. Thanks Keliotes.

Color photograph by Cuville in 1914-1918

Also Le Baron in 1918 made a picture of the chair cut in stone.

hv

911 - WG Trip to Athos: day 1

The Athos trip always starts at the Pilgrims Office at Ouranopolis: and every time it is a satisfying feeling to hold your permit (Diamoniterion) in your hands. Only then you get this feeling: This is it, our journey can begin !

But not after bying boat tickets at the office near our favourite place to drink a cup of coffee (with a friendly waitress, who speaks English).

After passing the border with its buildings the first Athos-settlement is called Thibais. It is Russian and inhabited again, after being deserted for a couple of years. I wonder if they ever get visitors, being so close to the border and yet so difficult to reach for pligrims?

Thibais - 27/9/2009

Then you will see some small houses, which are quite interesting, because one of the houses must be the harbour of the Ag. Nikolaou/Monoxylites winery. Nowadays you can find a Monoxylites shop in Ouranopolis, not only selling their wines, but also honey, books and various things to bring home (for your wife). I was lucky to get a gift from my friends, so I will give you a full report about the wines of Monoxylites later. It is very difficult to get information about the wines from the internet, except for this (out dated) site. The wines are - by the way - not cheap: about € 10 - 12 for the "normal" red and white and € 25,00 (!!) for the red Tria Adelphia - The Three Brothers.

A (bad) picture of the houses you see after passing Thibais.

To make the situation more clear I took this shot from Google Earth:

Wim Voogd, 1/11/09

910 - art: unknown artist

In the guesthouse of Pantokratoros I saw this painting of this monastery by an (for me) unknown artist. Although the painting was very dirty, I liked the colour and composition. Who made it? Could it be this artist?

Signed by who?
hv

909 - Antithonas / the path to Dionysiou

While planning the latest trip to Athos I decided to walk from Mylopotamos to Dionysiou. With the help of our readers I made a plan to take the unknown and exiting path leading from the Antithonas top towards Ag. Onoufriou and then to Dionysiou.

Detail from the Zwerger map: on the left of the Aeropotamos the path to Plakara/Onoufriou and "J" is the junction of 4 roads.
Soon after passing the Antitonas at 850 meters we arrived at the crossing of 4 roads, of which one leads towards Agiou Pavlou (the one going to the right). To my surprice we found a sign on a tree at that place, showing us the way to Dionysiou.

The junction of roads near Antithonas: the main road on the left leads to Pavlou - 28/9/09
We took the right turn, still hoping to find the left path. As you can see on this relatively recent photo from Google maps there is a new dirt road, lower and parallel to the road to Ag. Pavlou. Because we found another newly made sign at point "O" we decided to walk on.

The newly made sign at point "O", with the higher parallel road to Ag. Pavlou on the left behind Winfried with the walking stick.

A picture of the Aeropotamos and the road to Ag. Pavlou, soon after we saw Dionysiou lying below:

Not from that position we found this worn sign along the road (see "X" on the Google Earth map above):

And immediately we found this new sign, just a few meters from the old one,

thus taking the Aeropotamos-path and NOT the one I planned on the left side: here a picture of the rocks on the other side, which looked not very inviting to walk !

The rocks near Kellion Onoufriou
We took a wonderfull path leading to Dionysiou, not dangerous at all, but with a lot of lose stones and a some buches in the way.

Aeropotamos
As a reward of our 8 hour walking trip (which was a bit to long!) we saw this beautifull sight:

Dionysiou, soon after leaving the Aeropotamos path.

Wim Voogd, 29/9/09

908 - Fishing and gardening

Very early color autochrome by Fernand Cuville of Esfigmenou monastery. Picture taken during World War 1 1914 -1918. Watch the garden and the pier on the foreground.

The garden but now the photo is taken from the monastery. September 2009.
You read the stories about the zealot monks of this monastery with fundamental orthodox principles and my perception was that they were old men hiding in their cells but it turned out to be a very lively community with hard working monks. One of them refused to speak to us but there was also a funny monk who called one of us "Miek Jagger" and laughed out loud.

"miek Jagger"

Workers fishing on the pier.
hv

907 - Plants growing on buildings

Sografou

Ruins just outside the monastery of Sografou.

Ruined houses Sografou.

Fig Konstamonitou
september 2009
hv

906 - Stavronikita: postcard and picture from the air

With the ossuary on the left (picture from 1955).

Wim Voogd, 26/10

905 - The ossuary of Stavronikita

The ossuary in 1914-1918 by Millet. More historic pictures here.

The same spot in september 2009 by hv. The place is totally renovated. In the pictures below you see that the columns were originally not situated in the gate

Photo taken by Thodoris Lakiotis. Here an overview of the situation while renovation was in progress probably taken a couple of years ago.
hv

904 - The Athos exhibition in Paris

Les trésors du Mont Athos s'exposent au Petit Palais
door mairiedeparis

hv

903 - WG Trip to Athos: the day before

Only two years after my last journey to the Holy Mountain I was able to pay another visit in September (27-30) this year. It was my 6th trip to the Holy Mountain, the first dating from 1980. My aim was to visit some unknown places, which succeeded quite well and I will show you this in the coming months.
Our group of 7 pilgrims split up in two, but the first day we walked/travelled together. That's why there will be some overlap of information and pictures. To make the difference between both groups visible I will start my blogs with WG (Wim's Group). The group consisted of Peter and Winfried (both their first visit), Jitze (second time) and me.

Useally Athos-visitors who like to walk, hike to the Athos-border on the day before they enter. There you will find some buildings belonging to the Holy Mountain (Chilandariou?). They are partly in ruin and until recently you could meet a happy and lonely monk who was willing to make a conversation, but now the place is inhabited by Greek police.

The new fence keeps on going, right into the sea:

And inland the new border-fence is easy to follow (probably all the way to the other side near Nea Roda ( about 8 km).

The olives were allmost ready to harvest

near the excavations of the old monastary called Zygou

where I saw this newly excavated stone: with an olive(?) branch, two doves and a cross on it:

The gate to Mount Athos did not open for us, because we could not visit the vineyards of Chromitsa/Tsantali this time, dispite friendly efforts of ms. Despina Peristeraki.

"Very disappointed" we drank away our distress with a good glass of white wine called Kormilitsa from the Chromitsa vineyards, the house wine of the Russian rulers at the Kremlin (which you cannot buy in Ouranopolis shops, why not mr Tsantalis?):

And this is the group that - after a good meal and drink - was ready for the great day of tomorrow, the 27th of September 2009:

from left to right: Jaap, Jitze, Herman, Wim, Winfried, Bas (Mick Jagger) and Peter

Wim Voogd, 25/10