Millennium old Greek Orthodox churches

After a super mild winter we got all the cold the winter "owed" us at once. After 2 weeks in a row with very miserable weather for our brilliant Mediterranean standards now it's finally time to undust my bike and take it out for a spin.

Here it is sunbathing under this very old olive tree:

Begs the question what am I doing here right? See what's behind the bike:

Not clear? Let me help:

Now it looks more like a church or monastery right? that's because it actually is.

Unfortunately it's under lock and key though:

Hence from here all I can see is this:

Nice yard with some super old trees (especially that olive tree on the left). But still you might wonder what am I doing here in case you are following me for a while knowing that I am not known for my full on religious faith. The most (but not only) attractive part of this church is its history:

What we see today here was built on the central part of a paleochristian church (6th AD) that pre existed. It's a post Byzantium church that also used to be a monastery. What makes it even more special is (at least as it is said) that Lord Byron had an overnight here as he was making his way to Sounio back in 1820. Now who is Lord Byron?

George Gordon Byron was an English aristocrat, romantic poet, politician, and well known in Hellas for being philhellene contributing in the revolution against the Ottoman empire back in the day. He died in his beloved Hellas in 1824.

Two centuries later I am walking around this historic place where the soft grass allows me to move in a stealth and comfy way capturing those cute baby chamomile:

These are the cells of the monks from the outside:

And here's all I can picture from the church itself:

As you can see there's several very old olive trees in there that probably welcomed Lord Byron back in the day. What definitely wasn't there then is this (abandoned as it looks from here) factory in the background:

Urbex material for later? We'll see 😉

Time to say goodbye to the church:

Walking back on the grass again I capture this cute little guy who just woke up to these first warm rays of light on this rather cold morning:

It's the perfect opposite to these super old olive trees who have been generously offering their oil to several generations of humans so far:

I decide to walk this olive grove opposite side of the church as I am easily attracted by aligned olive trees:

The above are much younger than the previous ones but next to another pretty old one I find this also old (though maybe not as) old storeroom:

What a time machine this place is:

I know it's too small to hide something impressive but you all want me to look inside don't ya?

Next to it I find one of the oldest fig trees I've ever seen:

Bare as these trees are during winter, they are as green and full of leaves during summer with delicious fruits on them.

I hop on my bike to check out that factory I saw before. Its gate is open but kinda feels freshly open:

As I struggle to find a stone to place under the sidestand of my bike preventing it from falling over in the mud I see a coin. I try to pick it up cause it doesn't look Greek to me and ... it's actually a penny!

Beyond weird at a place that has zero tourism.

I step inside and the whole complex looks abandoned though that sign at the front part looks as a very recent add on:

After a couple of steps I hear sounds of activity. I have two more churches to visit plus an ancient site so I decide to skip this for the moment, leave it for another time I'll be (hopefully solo) around and hop on my bike.

Ready for some more old as stones (and made of them) churches?

Let's go:

Not far from the previous one I showed in part 1 is this next one:

The church you just saw is 1000 years old as it dates back to the 11th or 12 century, it's dedicated to Virgin Mary as she's supposed to protect the farmer's harvest - not just a coincidence that there's lots of cultivated fields around its location.

Let's have a look from angles that are a little more flattering light wise:

I see a lot of pieces on the walls that look like marble and I start suspecting...let's see some more:

Oups! Did you see that piece at the bottom of the right picture? This one:

It's obvious now that back in the day they used ancient marble ruins to built this...You can see it from a different angle here:

The more you look on these walls the more you find:

A closer look at this last piece unveils a writing from someone back in 1904!

Click to magnify, it's written in the middle

Not sure if that's the original door but could be:

The day gets warmer and sweeter as I am standing a few meters behind the church picturing the fields while a plane lands on Athens's airport (that's this tiny thing in the sky right in the middle):

The area doesn't lack in history (as if there's a place in Greece that does anyway) so I leave the bike and start walking to check out a site nearby. Instead of gold I find coal though:

This is the place where during the medieval years 9 brothers had one tower each and there was also a settlement around but ages later today it's just a swamp:

It offers an excellent chance to try my expensive and promising waterproof motorcycle boots but other than that nothing of any value.

Oh, you also have the chance to remember which country is the one you're walking on:

I'm not done yet do I start walking towards my next target, one more church from the same era. After trying my boots over several muddy fields I get my first sight of it behind those trees:

It's such a beautiful scenery to see this church from the 12th century accompanied by those (not as old but still very old) trees, a true travel in time:

Hard to tell from the pictures but these branches are huge:

Time to focus on the church. Here's the entrance:

Unfortunately the painting is gone:

See how low the door is:

Marble bits again...hmmm...:

Well, they're not just marble bits. They're pieces of an ancient temple actually! Look at these:

I bet they even built it over an ancient temple as Christians in Greece used to back in the day. The lack of taste to use such things as fillers makes me fuming. I'm not religious but aesthetically I prefer the Ancient Greek one much more than the Christian (at least the Greek Orthodox). That's material for several posts though so let's continue viewing the church from various angles flattered by the sun:

More marble bits:

As I walk back to the entrance again I notice one more piece coming from the ancient years at the top:

Not even properly aligned, not quite matching the whole thing anyway. 1500 years before these guys ancient Greeks wouldn't even dare to built a temple in such a rough way. I've said it many times before but evolution of mankind is far from linear. And cultural conflicts are far from smooth if nothing else.

From a bit of research I've done later back at home I found out that not only they used bits from ancient temples like the ones I spotted but also bits of ancient graves as well. I mean...

I hope you liked reading both parts. No videos this time unfortunately cause there were farmers working around with chainsaws and such not allowing me to capture the wonderful soundtrack of nature. Hopefully better luck next time🙂

See you on the next one!