Meteora's communities build monasteries on the cliffs
About this date: The range represents the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of monastic expansion. It does not assign a documented single foundation date to every monastery.
Monastic communities develop on the inaccessible rock pillars of Meteora. Their buildings create places for communal worship and study in a landscape earlier inhabited by hermits.
Historical context
Political instability in fourteenth-century Thessaly forms part of the setting. The expansion continues through the fifteenth century, with later rebuilding adding further artistic layers.
Key points
- Earlier hermit settlement precedes the cliff-top monasteries.
- Each foundation has its own history.
- Many famous surviving frescoes belong to later centuries.
People
- Athonite and Thessalian monastic communities
Sources and further reading
- Meteora: historical development
Institutional chronology of settlement and monastic building.