Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas Anapafsas at Meteora — Attraction in Meteora Municipality

⚠️⚠️TO AVOID IF YOU'RE A TOURIST. I FELT ROBBED AND ALSO EXPERIENCED XENOPHOBIA INSIDE THE MONASTERY. We entered the "monastery" today and saw everyone climbing the short stairs upwards, but first, we stopped at the souvenir shop. Then we decided to climb and follow the crowd, and the man attending the souvenir shop told us that we had to pay 3 euros per person to go up. We paid. But when we went up, everything was under renovation, a boy of approximately 12 years old told us that we couldn't take photos. I asked why? And he said he didn't know but had to say that. (Does that boy work there? I don't know).. When we went up, we asked people if they had paid entrance fees, and they told us they hadn't paid anything. We went back to ask for a refund, and the man from the shop (tall, thin with glasses) refused to refund us, and also his colleague who was with him at that moment rudely told us that we HAD TO PAY BECAUSE WE WERE TOURISTS BUT GREEKS DIDN'T HAVE TO PAY BECAUSE THEY ARE GREEKS... (This is systematic racism) because everyone who goes to the monastery, including Greeks, are also tourists... In conclusion, it's best to avoid it; it doesn't seem like any "sacred" place, and they mistreat...

The best choice somebody can do!!!

Way less crowded than the rest of the monasteries where sometimes you can't even enter inside the church,

beautiful path till the top under the trees' shade,

exquisite wall paintings dated since 1520-27 a.d by Theophanis the Cretan, founder of the Cretan school of Byzantine iconography, especially now that they have cleaned the soot off of them,

less modernized than the rest of the monasteries.

The first floor is the oldest part of the monastery dated since 1350 a.d approximately. You can even see the large wooden construction beams which date since 1350 a.d The rest of the monastery was built in 1498 by the tow founders , St. Dionysios bishop of Larissa and St. Nikanor.

The staff and the monks were polite and they ask both, men and women, to wear long trousers and skirts , thus making no discriminations between them!! Plus, I don't know how often they wash the clothes they provide people with but the trouser they gave me was freshly washed, smelling beautiful!!!

The view from the top, next to the bells is absolutely...

Visited March 2024

This is a site that you need two to three days to see it all in total. These unbelievable monks created a true engineering marvel and did it with a craftsmanship that is amazing. Take your time and see it all. We bought some of the monk's Raki and it was an original taste and it should be experienced!

The beginning of the monastic life on the rock of Anapafsas is placed in the 14th century and the name of the monastery probably due to old founder. In this phase belongs the chapel of St. Anthony, the walls of which still exists the remains of frescoes. The monastery was renovated in the first decade of the 16th century. When Larissa Metropolitan St. Dionysius the Merciful and the Exarch Stagon monk Nikanor, who are the founders of the monastery, erected the present church, which was painted by the famous Cretan painter Theophanes Strelitzas in 1527. From the first decade of the 20th century. The monastery was abandoned and began to decay. In the 1960s, he renovated and restored by the...