1299 – Russian film about Athos: 1989 – 2005

Posted on 10/05/2012 by athos

The film is made by Juri Vorobyuevsky over a period between 1989 and 2005 and it contains scenes of the film “Unexpected Athos”, published in 2000.

The film, spoken in the Russian language, is difficult to understand, but there some extraordinary scenes in it, that I want to show you.

First of all there is a scene shot on a spot somewhere above the Lavra monastery, with the ancient pre-christian rock inscriptions, that we showed you before in post nr 1051 and 1199. It begins at 22.50 mininutes. Here are some images:

I have not found the excact location of this spot, but it is not far from Lavra and there some big cypresses nearby.

It would be great if a Russian speaking visitor could translate the words of the journalist about these carvings! Who can help us? And why does the maker shows a scene from a black and white film at 25 minutes and some pages of a book afterwards?

The next interesting scene can be found at 39.20 minutes. Here you can see and here the Russian “dreadlock” hermit Stefana from Karoulia, who also sings beautiful at 43.30!

Wim, 10/5

1298 – Karakalou: the interior

Posted on 08/05/2012 by athos

Early morning October 4th 2011: the katholicon

The interior of the guesthouse

The same hallway, in the opposite direction

Old water basin and tap

One of the chapels behind closed doors (near the guesthouse)

The visitors book in the guesthouse of Karakalou

With the rules of the monastery above it: “concerning hospitality”

Athos map in the hallway

Watercolour art from Karakalou: Xizos Michail (?) 1996/7

This last picture shows you something about the things that are to come: this large bell does not belong to Karakalou and originates from the nearby kelli Timiou Stavrou. I wanted to visit this kellion for a long time, because I have seen it in 1986, as reported in older posts ”An adventure on the Holy Mountain – part 1 2 and 3″ (see 187, 188 and 192 + 702, also see the categories).

And this adventure continues, because we will take a closer look at Timiou Stavrou next time (and I had a special reason to go back there)!

Wim, 8/5

1297 – Athos seen from our plane, Thursday April 26th

Posted on 30/04/2012 by athos

Athos and Ierissos, near Kavala

Athos, seen from 13 km high, on our way from Amsterdam to Karpathos

Wim and Herman, April 30th

1296 – the cyclus of the Apocalypse of John in the Exonarthex of Karakalou

Posted on 24/04/2012 by athos

In the portico of the monastery Dionysiou you see the Apocalypse of John in 21 scenes, probably one of best fresco’s on the Holy Mountain. I showed you these scenes with extensive commands in post numbers 1100, 1103, 1110, 1113, 1126 and 1132. Most of these scenes also can be found in the exonarthex in the katholicon of Karakalou. Not as fine as the fresco’s and not as organized as in Dionysiou, but still worth showing:

Locusts falling from the sky with the sun covered by clouds (not a mushroom caused by an atomic explotion, as some say), with an angel above the scene, with a long horn and a key in his hand (on the Dionysiou scene the key is missing).

Apocalyptic scene: people are slaugthered by angels and numerous knights sit one lions with snake-tails, God with two angels overlooking the scene. Two saints are next to the scene, Vicarios and Achiaos (?)

On the right: Angels reaping and harvesting earth and left: “a woman sitting upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns”:

Detail of angels harvesting grapes

Chapter 8 of the Apocalypse

John continues in chapter 13 with three verses about angels, one proclaiming the fall of Babylon. Verse two: “And the beast which I saw was like to a leopard: and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion”.

Badly damaged scenes: horsemen on the left and disasters (?)

Right: “The vision of the woman clothed with the sun and of the great dragon her persecutor”. Left: Holy Saint with a winged and crowned dragon

Disaster strikes again: the black sun and red moon, wrecked ships and snow (chapter

The four horsemen, including Death on the pale horse

Earthquake and falling stars with people hiding!

And I’ll finish with some other fine fresco’s, starting with one of the Pantocrator:

detail of his face:

The Panaghia and the child Jesus

Angel

I hope the fresco’s will be saved and conserved in the near future, because their condition is in bad shape !

Wim, 24/4

(next week we will be in Greece with our familie, this time not to visit Athos, but KARPathos!)

1295 – climb to the top: the Panaghia chapel and the new chapel

Posted on 17/04/2012 by athos

Fremaki asked us about the condition of the Panaghia chapel, where you spend a night in a guestroom. The photos I took half a year ago speak for themselves:

The newly renovated Panaghia refuge

A relatively clean room with iron beds and some matresses

The fireplace and a well with clear fresh water

A window in Panaghia with icons, books and oil

If you want some more information about the taxidriver who brought us to Ouranopolis, read this blog.

The situation on the top is a bit messy: the construction of the new chapel is well on the way, but far from finished:

The unfinished new chapel

a concrete mixer at 2033 meters

The temporary chapel at the top, Oct 4th 2011

Wim, 17/4

1294 – Karakalou

Posted on 15/04/2012 by athos

Karakalou: the balcony of the guesthouse, where we spend the evening of Oct 3th with a good conversation

In the early morning of October 4th 2011 we woke up an saw the sun rising at 7: North wing, with building H, Δ 3 (WC/bathroom) and Z1, the guesthouse, see the plan below,

Plan of Karakalou by Mylonas.

Building T, in front of the entrance, with scaffolds and a construction crane: photo shot from the corner of building H.

The entrance of Karakalou, with the construction crane on the right. Notice the white phiale (B1) behind the crane, outside the monastery walls! (photo thanks to Jitze)

The Phiale: a marble watertap

Two painted red fish and a text in Greek above the watertap

The small dome of the phiale with a badly damaged fresco of the Panaghia and the child Jezus, surrounded by buildings

Stucco falling and cracks in the wall: the present state of maintenance of the phiale

Entrance doors Karakalou

Paul and Peter above the entrance

Agioreitiki Byzantini Ora: Athos time and clock, just after entering the monastery

Wim, 15/4

1293 – the old Roussikon pictures found by Paul Robert

Posted on 04/04/2012 by athos

Paul Robert published the pictures he found on glass plates in 1982 on this website. With his computer he photoshopped them and now they look as new. He also found some printed pictures in the old photo workshop of Panteleimonos, who were in a very bad shape. Even these pictures are brought back to life by Paul with the help of computer techniques and we are anxious to see them publicated in the near future.

His plan to return the glass plate negatives to a project starded by the monastery Simonos Petras, to collect historical pictures of Mount Athos.

Panteleimonos or Roussikon – before 1917

French sailors/marines Campagne d’Orient 1917-1918

Three French soldiers

More soldiers posing

Two French soldiers posing against a painted background, showing the Panteleimon monastery

The original (reversed) picture from ‘Plaatwerk”1986

Russian pilgrim

The original unedited photo from ‘Plaatwerk’1986

Monk posing with a parchment.

Two monks in their cell

Three monks having tea on a balcony

Two monks in a garden, posing with a bible

The courtyard of Sografou monastery: monks and pilgrims (thanks Fremaki)

A rare picture of monks on horseback or mules(?) near the Panaghia chapel, halfway to the top of Mount Athos

Could the young monk on the horse be this guy?

From ‘Plaatwerk’ 1986

My compliments for the fine work Paul did, the photos do look like new now!

Wim, 4/4

1292 – Edward Lear on Google art

Posted on 04/04/2012 by athos

Google art introduced more then 150 museum on the web. Here you see a painting by Edward Lear dated 1857 from the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. We showed you the image earlier but never in a high res version like Google made. Check the details yourself

1291 – Paul Robert: four articles in Dutch about Athos

Posted on 02/04/2012 by athos

photo: Paul Robert, Novice Michail, 85 years old, came to Athos after his wife died

Last year the Dutch (photo) journalist Paul Robert visited Athos after 30 years, this time together with his 23 year old son. Here are three articles in Dutch, that he published in 2011 in PDF format (I allready showed you the pictues from the Roussikon photo worhshop from 30 years ago in post nr 290, also have a look on this website).

Vakantie Magazine – Athos

Flower Power Travel 3 2011

Financieel Dagblad Athos-17092011

Very recent he published an article (again in Dutch) about this trip last year in the April Edition of Readers Digest (page 66 to 69). He writes about the rare opportunity to interview the Protos of Mount Athos, Elder Barnabas from Vatopedi and shows the fine pictures he took. According to Paul Robert this was the first time ever the Protos gave an interview! For more about his work and photos go to his website.

June 14th 2011 Elder Barnabas from Vatopedi is the new Protos of Athos in the Protaton church, photo: romfea.gr)

Wim, 2/4

1290 – photobook by Wim de Vos

Posted on 01/04/2012 by athos

Wim de Vos took the photos whilst travelling to Mount Athos to film a documentary, in his role as a lighting cameraman for CBS 60 minutes: Greek Orthodox Monks…. -”one-of-the-best“. Another place to see his pictures is here.

1289 – 2011 day 1: the arrival at Karakalou

Posted on 30/03/2012 by athos

Finally, after a long day and a few minutes before 5 o’clock in the afternoon, we arrived at our destination, the monastery of Karakalou.

To our surprize a monk came to us and told us to hurry, because the service in church was about to begin and if we wanted to join, we shouldn’t wast time. Strangely enough this message was not spoken in Greek but in Dutch! We were welcomed by a Dutch Athos monk named Pachomios!

After the service in front of the katholicon: monk Pachomiou talking to his fellow Dutchman. He had been living in Karakalou for 4 months and before that in an Orthodox monastery in France. This very friendly and warm person originally came from Surinam and lived in The Hague in Holland. He showed us around in the church and made us feel very welcome!

Courtyard of Karakalou: monk Pachomiou (photos above thanks to Jitze)

Plan of Karakalou from Mylonas

Karakalou by Barski 1747

Karakalou 264 years later

Karakalou: tower (E on the plan) and entrance, seen from outside the monastery

Karakalou garden

Entrance (A and Delta on the plan)

Guesthouse and balconies (plan: M)

Stairs to the guesthouse, katholicon and tower

Katholicon (building H and the left)

Katholicon and tower

Building Z

Unsharp photo of the well in the courtyard

Bronze Bell on the tower. This wasn’t there in 1986 when I first visited Karakalou and it will pay an important role in one of the following posts, because I’ve seen it before on a very different place on Mount Athos………

Bedroom in Karakalou

This ends our first (very long) day on Athos in 2011. Next time I will show you some more pictures of Karakalou and its fresco’s.

On the tower in 1986

Wim, 30/3

1288 – Abbot Ephraim released with conditions

Posted on 30/03/2012 by athos

A panel of judges has ordered the release of Abbot Ephraim of the Vatopedi monastery on the Orthodox monastic sanctuary of Mount Athos, after he spent three months in prison on fraud charges.

The 56-year-old monk is at the centre of an alleged scandal involving controversial land-swaps between Vatopedi and the previous New Democracy government considered unfairly beneficial to the 1,000-year-old monastery. The judges ordered that Cyprus-born Ephraim pay €300,000 bail, be banned from leaving Greece and report regularly at the Mount Athos police station while awaiting trial. His imprisonment drew criticism from the Greek Church, Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew and even the Russian government (from Athens News).

Wim, 30/3

1287 – historical pictures of Athos II

Posted on 28/03/2012 by athos

Here are some more historical pictures, starting with one of the oldest photographic pictures of the mountain from 1857, with a kellion near Provata (?):

Athos, the mountain in 1857

Thirteen years later, 1870: Vatopedi monastery

Vatopedi in the beginning of 1900 with a few changes: a new building is situated on the right of the small church in the middle, and you can see a second story added on the building on the right.

One of the Russian monk-photographers, deacon Procopius (in Karyes), beginning 1900.

Panteleimon monastery, beginning1900

Panteleimon vessel, beginning 1900

Panteleimon: constructing the pier, with a lot of helping hands

Skiti Andreou dental office, beginning 1900

Skiti Andreou: lunch in the courtyard, beginning 1900

Karyes: panorama 1904

Karyes: grape harvest, beginning 1900

Karyes: The cell of St. Nicholas Burazeri, beginning 1900. I do not recall any building/bell tower like this in Karyes in 2011. Does it still excist?

Monastery of Agiou Pavlou: unloading a ship at the pier, 1928

Mylopotamos 1947

Kutlumusiou grape harvest, 1950

Wim, 29/3

1286 – historical pictures of Athos

Posted on 25/03/2012 by athos

1904: Karyes main street

1910: the harbor of Chilandariou with Ag. Basiliou in the background: Peter, the King of Serbia, gets an official welcome.

1913: the Axion Esti icon in front of Koutloumousiou

1919 4-17 July: the English admiral A. Kaltorpa visits Karyes, with a crowd and a lot of banners and flags – including a British – hanging from the balconies

1919: Panteleimon monastery with military of the allied armies

1937: Port of Dafni: arrival of King George II of Greece

1963: the celebrations of the Millenium 963-1963

Wim, 25/3

1285 – Athos icon of Agios Georgios 1976 and Athos Liturgy books 1931

Posted on 25/03/2012 by athos

Sometimes things just fall right. Last week I had a look on Ebay to see if any new Athos items were for sale. Usually you can find some old books or etchings. This time my attention was drawn to an Athos icon. It is very seldom that authentic Athos icons are for sale on Ebay. When I took a closer look I was surprized to see that this icon was for sale in Amsterdam, my home town!

The icon was offered by a Dutch (photo) journalist and Athos fan Paul Robert, who visited Athos in 1976, and bought this icon when he visited Skiti Anna (Paul lives only two kilometers from my adress!!).

Although the artistic quality of the icon is not high, the scene of st George and his dragon is classical and it has its own caracter because of its primitive style.

He bought this icon on his first trip to Mount Athos in 1982 and when we talked about it, it showed out that he published his experience in a Dutch magazine called Plaatwerk, that I showed you in post 861 and 862. He was the one who – together with his friend and journalist Rolf Bos – found the glass-negatives in the Roussikon photo atelier!

Detail – Ag. Georgios

The icon was painted by a monk of Agia Anna, who did a good job by packing it in for transport and secure it by nailing wooden rods around the icon. The result is that the icon has been slightly damaged.

The text on the bottem is not clear to me: “E.ch Ane..niou (?) m. Agiou Oros”: “The text on the icon means “Work of Antonios monk [of] Agion Oros” (in Greek: Erg. Antoniou m. Agios Oros – thanks Vasilis!)

what does it mean?

Detail – the head of the dragon

Paul shared some of his publications with me, which I will show to you in the near future. His plan is to returne the original glass-plate negatives to Mount Athos (Simonos Petras monastery).

Paul gave me these Athos liturgy books from 1931:

Wim, 24/3

1284 – new site with GPS Athos map

Posted on 21/03/2012 by athos

This new site, Athos Map 2012, is an absolute must for pilgrims who like to hike on the Athos paths and roads (and thus keep the legacy of Reinhold Zwerger alive).

With the help of modern GPS equipment and maps that can be downloaded on this site, a hike on the Holy Mountain will be much easier and more save. This is what the anonymous writer (thetimelord (at) gmx.at) from Austria shares with us:

“Take care about using the wonderful old trails on mount Athos. Don’t underestimate the actual condition of the trails (e.g overgrown) and the time consumption. Thus, several trails imaged on the Maps (Athos Map 2010, Zwerger Map) might not be found in reality today. The trails imaged in Athos Map 2012 are based on GPS tracks and georeferenced aerial photographs where paths were found that might correspond to that of the Zwerger Map. In rare cases it could happen that creeks were misinterpreted as trails. – Again, don’t forget to bring a real Map (e.g. the Zwerger Map) – see FAQ.

If you lost (or think that you might have lost) your trail on Mount Athos – immediately turn back and travel to the last (readable and clear) direction sign!”

Here some usefull examples of the GPS maps that you can download (the dotted line are paths, the red lines roads):

North part

Middle part

South part

Detail South West part

Around the mountain

And finally, a very helpfull list with distances in minutes, a must for a hiker on Athos.

I will follow this site and bookmarked it, keep up the good work!

Wim, 21/3 (thanks Jan Paul for mailing the link)

1283 – art: Chekmarev and more from the Russian painters Nesterenko and Belyukin

Posted on 20/03/2012 by athos

P. Chekmarev - A View of Mount Athos (no date) – 2000s?

In posts 520 and 1069 we showed you some paintings of Dmitri Belyukin. Here are some more:

Dmitri Belyukin – the pinnacle of the holy mountain at dawn – 2005

Dmitri Belyukin – a moonlit night on Athos clouds – 2006

Dmitri Belyukin – apples from the holy mountain – 2000

Dmitri Belyukin – in the monastery guesthouse on Athos – 1997

Dmitri Belyukin – Iveron: icon of the Mother of God Vratarnitsa (Panaghia Portatissa) - 1997

In 519 we published some of Nesterenko’s paintings. Here – again – some more:

Vasili Nesterenko – noon heat – 1999

Vasili Nesterenko – spring on Mount Athos seasons cycle picture – 1996 Oil on canvas, 140 x 180 cm

Wim, 20/3

1282 – hike from Iviron to Karakalou

Posted on 18/03/2012 by athos

In the afternoon Oktober 3th 2011 we started on our last part of our hike that day. After leaving Iviron over the main gravel road, you will soon see the buildings of the 1000 year old vineyard of Mylopotamos, where the cook-monk Epifanius lives, with the friendly monk Ioachim, who we visited in 2009.

Road to Lavra/Karakalou (photo thanks to Jitze)

Rocky beach just before Mylopotamos

Mylopotamos – the tower

Cars just pass through the brook, hikers can use a stone bridge: the next picture is at the same spot.

Mylopotamos

Google earth

This is an example how easy it is – for unexperienced hikers like us – to take a wrong turn. We didn’t pay attention and took a turn to a lower situated -dead end – road! Our map wasn’t quite accurate, but anyway, we should have noticed earlier that the road was covered with plants and there were no tracks of any cars. It took us half an hour the reach the main road again…… (notice the small house, see pictures below).

Wrong way!

The small house near Karakalou: kellion Agiou Dimitriou

Athos map of kellion Agiou Dimitriou

Kellion Agiou Dimitrion: wine, raki, ouzo and honey: not a bad place to go to! Unfortunately we had no time left, because it was almost 17.00 h., and we had be in Karakalou in time.

Kellion Agiou Dimitriou: seen from the other side

Mount Athos (near Karakalou)

A new chapel is build near Karakalou

Karakalou

Karakalou – with Brother Pachomios from Holland waiting for us.

Wim, 17/3

1281 – book: Mount Athos – Macedonia’s Holy Land by Stathis Haritopoulos

Posted on 13/03/2012 by athos

This book in Greek and English was published in 2000. It is made by the Greek photogapher Stathis Haritopoulos and it containes a lot of beautiful pictures, including some historical photos:

Front page