monastery balcony I beheld a moonlit, glistening sea, seemingly unending except for the promise of neighbors offered by
the lights on the distant shore.
G
reat Lavra is the largest monastery complex on Mount
Athos, with extensive walls and towers, several chapels and
churches, large internal open spaces and a mansion built for
a long ago visiting king. Athos is divided into monastic territories of which Lavra is also the largest. It includes within its
domain Mount Athos itself.
We visited several monasteries on the long drive to Great Lavra,
over new unpaved roads. We passed Karies, the capital, and
passed small ancient bridges, dense forests, streams and several
of the ports associated with each monastery. We saw watchtowers, a seaside winery and several skete, residences affiliated
with monasteries.
At St. Andrew���s Skiti near the capital, the juxtaposition of
large swathes of protective plastic covering and high scaffolding along with the most extensive gold-leaf restoration I have
ever seen, at a near-monumental scale, made Saint Andrew���s
Church, however temporarily, a strangely modern work of
conceptual art. As I took photographs of the saints through
the plastic, they seemed increasingly close, more real, more like
the figures in George Inness paintings lingering in a twilight
HYLAND
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