Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: Θεσσαλία

The Church of Taxiarches is located in the central aquare of Mlilies, one of the quaint Pelion villages. From an architectural point of view the church has very simple exterior, which does not remind of any temple at all, since during the Turkish occupation the construction of majestic orthodox Christian buildings was avoided, so as not to provoke the Turks. It is unknown when exactly this church was built, but a sign at the entrance tells that it was renovated in 1741. The interior of the Church of Taxiarches is stunningly beautiful and impresses visitors with the wall paintings that depict scenes from the Bible and Hell. Of exceptional, but also unique interest is the icon painting, which was probably done by an unknown monk, while the gilded iconostasis was made by Epirote craftsmen. The Church of Taxiarches is an important historical monument for Pelion as in May 1821, the scholar Anthimos Gazis raised the Greek flag and proclaimed the revolution in Thessaly. .

The plane tree in Tsagarada is one of the oldest trees in Europe. It is located in the square of Tsagarada in front of the Agia Paraskevi (PiP4). According to foresters, the tree is around 1000 years old. The circumference of the trunk measures over 15 meters. The crown of the plane tree is so large that it is difficult to measure it. Its perimeter may even be 40 meters. The branches are as thick as a tree trunk. The general condition of the tree is very good. However, the trunk has a cavity which is closed with a metal sheet. One of the branches is supported by a marble pillar. What might have not been taken into account for the age of the tree is that its roots start at about four meters under the paving of the square. Therefore, a large part of the trunk is “buried” for many years now at a depth of at least four meters.

The pericircular - Byzantine dome - Metropolitan Church of St. Nicholas of Volos was built on the initiative of the respective Mayors and Municipal Councils of the city. It was founded in 1928 and inaugurated at the end of 1934 by the then Metropolitan of Demetrias Germanos. The church is the work of the architect Aristotle Zachos and is built on the foundations of an older church that was burned down in1898. The unique art of the baroque style bell tower was built between 1886 - 1890 by Italian craftsmen. It was severely damaged by the 1980 earthquakes and was restored as a listed monument with the same marble in 1999.

I had seen pictures and TV-video’s about Meteora and it was on my bucket list for a long time. Having seen quite a lot of different countries and sights I only can say that this extraordinary place now is one of my top ten places. Meteora combines unique natural rocks with unimaginable human efforts. Meteora (from the Greek adjective meteoros - which means "elevated above the earth"), refers to the group of isolated rock pinnacles and to monasteries built on them. The height of these rocks varies from 300 more than 600 meters. The rock pillars of Meteora - also called “the rock forest of Greece” - tower hundreds of meters above the plain of Thessaly and the towns of Kalampaka and Kastraki. In the dark grey rock masses vertical grooves are carved out by rainwater that seeped down along the rock walls. The horizontal lines are much older and were created by waves hitting the rocks when the plain of Thessaly was the bottom of a sea. Millions of years ago, the pillars were part of the rocky bottom of that sea. A series of powerful earthquakes pushed the entire region out of the sea, creating a plateau with countless fractures in the thick sandstone layer. Weathering of the broken sandstone by water, wind and strong temperature changes then created the towering outcrops The natural sandstone towers of Meteora were first used as a religious refuge when the hermit Barnabas retreated to a cave in 985. Around 1350 Nelios, prior of the Stagaik monastery, built the first small church. Soon afterwards the monk Athanasios, from Mount Athos, founded the monastery Megalo Meteoro on one of the many rock formations. It is still not quite clear how the first hermits reached the top of the steep cliffs. Probably they slammed hooks in the rock and lifted building materials. Monasteries could be reached by rermovable ladders and later windlasses were used to haul monks in nets. There followed 23 more monasteries, most of which fell into disrepair at the end of the 18th century. In the twenties of the 20th century stairs were cut into the rocks to make the remaining six monasteries (Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas, Roussanou, Varlaam, Megalo Meteoro, Agios Stefanos, Agia Triada) more accessible. Now monks and nuns live there again. Since 1988 the six monasteries are listed as a cultural UNESCO World Heritage Site.