Mount
Athos lies in the third, most special peninsula of Chalkidiki
and is well known to Christians and non-Christians alike, as
the Holy Mountain. And that's because the severe, almost inaccessible
massive of Athos, secluded both geographically and in terms
of its administration from the rest of the world, continues
to offer shelter to the most important centre of the orthodox
asceticism for more than a thousand years, thus remaining a
present offered by Virgin Mary to the ascetics, which is why
all the monks in Holy Mountain still call it "PerivoIi
tis Panagias" (the orchard of the Virgin Mary). The ancient
Greeks though, came to inhabit the heavenly sides of this mountain
long before religious ascetics, founding five big and flourishing
cities on the Athos peninsula, which was then called simply
Akti (Coast). The five Greek cities of the ancient Akti were
Dion, Kleones, Thyssos, Olofyxos and on the southern end of
the peninsula, Akrothoi, where today the Monastery of Megistis
Lavras is situated. The ancient cities of the peninsula shared
the tate of the rest of Greece, falling in the hands of the
Macedonians, the Romans and later on, the Byzantine emperors.
In the 7th century A.D. the cities also fell in the hands ot
pirates, who managed to clear the peninsula of its inhabitants.
In
this heavenly wilderness, with the crystal waters, thick forests
and craggy shores, monks started to come after the 8th century
A.D. either as religious ascetics or in small groups forming small
monastic communities called lavres. Monastic life (asceticism)
acquired a new dimension in 963, when Aghios Athanasios Athonitis
(Saint Athanassios from Athos) created with the assistance of
his friend, the emperor Nikiforos Fokas, the first communal monastery,
Moni Megistis Lavras. In 972, the Byzantine emperor loannis Tsimiskis
signed on a goat's hide the constitution of Mount Athos, according
to which the various types of asceticism as well as certain religious
observances and rituals were determined and defined. After Aghios
Athanasios Athonitis, many monks started visiting Mount Athos
and by the end of the 11th century most of the 20 big monasteries
- still existing nowadays - as well as innumerable cells and lavres
were already established.
When the crusaders captured Constantinople in 1204, the Holy Mount
came under Frank domination, and the cardinal Benedict, offered
the peninsula as a present to the barons of Chalkidiki, who, having
Ouranoupoli as their base of operations, practically plundered
each and every monastery. Things got better when the byzantine
emperors took again the Athonian peninsula under their wing and
supported generously and unsparingly monks and monasteries. As
a result, the Holy Mount became in the 14th century an extremely
important cultural and religious centre, where many men of letters
gathered. At that time, the last of the big communal monasteries
was established. The Turks came to the Holy Mount for the first
time in the middle of the 14th century as pirates and continued
their "commendable" destructive work a little later
as conquerors of the Byzantine empire. The monastic city surrendered
to various agas, beys and hordes of lanizaries, having to pay
unbelievable amounts as poll-taxes and fines and trying to survive
on donations offered by the sovereigns of the Danube-bordering
countries. The extremely tight financial situation of most monasteries
imposed the idiorrythimico regime. According to it, every monk
could keep his own fortune, had to procure the means of his living
and should live and pray by himself. This particular policy made
monks create their own separate groups outside the twenty big
communal monasteries. In these new "settlements", later
called skites, the monks attended Liturgy together only on Sundays,
when they also shared their meals. The Athenian skites multiplied
mainly in the 18th century.
In
1794, the Athoniada Scholi (Athonian School) was founded in
Mount Athos, thereafter attracting many famous men of letters.
In the following years the monasteries expanded and the destroyed
buildings were restored. New monks came to the mountain and
in spite of the plundering of the monasteries with heavy taxes,
the Athenian city went through another golden period. This came
to an end when the Greek revolution was crushed in Chalkidiki.
The Holy Mount was pillaged by the Turks, both laity and monks
were massacred and extremely heavy taxes came to aggravate the
already shaky financial situation of the monasteries. Things
started to look up after 1826, when the monks chased away by
the Turks, came back to their ravaged monasteries. At the end
of the 19th century when the movement of panslavism appeared
in the Balkans, a crowd of Russian monks landed on the peninsula
of Athos. The Russians settled in the Panteleimonos Monastery
and demanded land, cells and skites in Athos, under the supervision
and guidance of the Russian consulate, which was trying to establish
a sphere of influence in the shaky area of the Balkans. Their
efforts proved fruitless after the October revolution, when
the new regime decided to abandon Russian monks and monasteries
in God's mercy. On 5 November 1912 the Greek flag was hoisted
in the little harbour of Dafni and in 1924 the Greek state recognized
by law the regime of the Holy Mount. Asceticism went through
a period of decline in the last decades of the 20th century,
but after 1972 the numbers of monks in Athos started to rise
again. Nowadays 1800 monks live in the Holy Mount, most of them
young and well-educated.
Some Practical Information
To visit Mount Athos you should follow a standard procedure, starting
with a telephone call to the (Grafeio Proskiniton Aghiou Orous)
Mount Athos Visitors Office in Thessaloniki (tel: 0310-833.733).
Having given your details you will be informed about the earliest
date available for your visit. And that because although there
is a great number of visitors, only 120 visitors with a regular
permit of stay are admitted to Mount Athos daily.
The permit of stay is the document provided by the lera Epistassia,
which permits you to stay in the Holy Mount monasteries for
three consecutive nights and leave on the morning of the fourth
day. The duration of your stay could typically be prolonged,
if you have an important reason which will be accepted by the
lera Epistassia in Karyes, where you will have to apply for
an extension of your permit. If you have an invitation from
an acquaintance in the Holy Mount, you will be offered a "special"
permit of stay:
The duration of your visit will be the same but you can only
stay in the monastery where you have been invited. With a regular
permit you can stay in every monastery - for one night only
which means that you should always organize your next day in
Athos. At the back of your permit there is a list of telephone
numbers for the monasteries that admit pilgrims and visitors
and the monasteries where you will have to book your place in
advance.
After you have made the telephone booking to be admitted to
the Holy Mount, you could before you actually get there, arrange
your visits and accommodation contacting the monasteries (see
telephone numbers for all the monasteries below) for your overnight
stays. On the day of your visit to Athos you should be at 9.00
a.m. at the visitors' office in Ouranoupoli (tel. 03770 -71.421)
or at Lerissos (tel: 03770 - 71.421). After you present your
l.D. card or documentation papers and pay the amount of 4.000
Drs you will take your permit and the little ferry leaving (weather
permitting) the harbour of Ouranoupoli at 9.45 a.m. Two hours
later you will reach the little harbour of Dafni, the actual
starting point of your visit to the Holy Mount.
Road Network & Transportation
In 1963 the first dirt road in the Athos peninsula was made; it
was the road connecting the little harbor of Dafni with Karyes.
Until then, transportation and communication were achieved by
means of fishing boats (for the monasteries by the sea) and
paths through the forests and the steep hillsides. Because of
a number of fires, ten years ago a network of forest roads were
created, connecting most monasteries, skites and cells. Today
in Mount Athos one can see quite a few vehicles, the most interesting
being the mount Athos taxis, usually driven by monks (see the
following table for phone numbers).
As soon as you arrive at Dafni (around 12.00, noon) two (private)
buses will be waiting to take you to Karyes, for the modest
amount of 2 Euro. The same buses take you from Karyes to Dafni
at 10:45 every morning, so that visitors leaving Athos can catch
the boat to Ouranoupoli. So, once in Karyes, you will have to
rely on the taxi-drivers to take you to your destination.
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