The monastic complexes of Mount Athos are set in places of great beauty. The buildings are fully in harmony with the wild natural landscape of the peninsula. As for their location, it was based on the need of the ascetics to live in solitude and devote themselves to God.
The Monastic Complexes
Among the 20 monasteries of Mount Athos, the sketes and the settlement of Karyes, there are hundreds of individual cells, kalyves and small chapels.
A characteristic feature of the cells is the central chapel, from which they usually take their name. They also have individual rooms, such as a reception hall, dining room, rooms for the monks and the pilgrims. The surrounding area consists of a garden with trees, vegetables, fruit and flowers.
The huts were built according to the example of the cells. The buildings are arranged around the square where the temple is located. There is also a trapeza, an administration building, the library and the guest house.
The monastic communities bear historical imprints from the 10th century to the present day.
During the 11th century, building activity in Mount Athos increased significantly, giving the monasteries the form they partially retain to this day. In the 14th century, extensive building work took place in order to repair the damage caused by chronic pirate raids. At the beginning of the 16th century, after 80 years of Ottoman rule, the monasteries were in a tragic state. A new period of maintenance, restoration and reconstruction began. The next historical period was marked by fires that destroyed a large part of the buildings. In the middle of the 18th century, a special programme for the restoration of the monasteries was introduced.
The Towers of Mount Athos
As we have seen, each monastery, skete or hut consists of many individual buildings. Thus, the architectural plan tends to bring together all individual spaces, creating a single structure. The monasteries are surrounded by a fortified wall, usually rectangular in shape. However, in some cases, the shape of the monasteries is adapted to the needs of the terrain and the natural landscape.
From the 10th century onwards, the construction of large buildings began. As the population of the monasteries increased, it became necessary to expand the land and readjust the wall.
In the case of monasteries built on cliffs, the area was increased by adding floors. Such are the cases of the monasteries of Saint Paul and Simonopetra.
In the past, the wall was a defensive structure designed to repel all kinds of invaders. Sometimes, it was equipped with small watchtowers in the form of a tower.
The towers were usually placed at the highest point of the monastery. They were tall square structures. On the ground floor there was a room, while the intermediate floors housed the library or the sacristy. On the top floor there was a chapel, from which each tower was named after. They often served as a shelter for monks awaiting an imminent siege. There were loopholes on all four sides of the towers in order to better control the area.
The oldest tower is located in the Holy Monastery of Great Lavra and bears the name of the byzantine emperor Tsimiskis. Around the same time, the tower of the Amalfinon Monastery was also built. The tower of the Holy Monastery of Hilandar was built at the end of the 12th century. In the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi, as well as in some other cases, there are two towers. Similar buildings are also found outside the walls. The purpose of these watchtowers was to better monitor the movement of pirate ships and to warn all the individual monasteries of approaching invaders.
In some cases, a moat was located around the wall. The monks had access to the monasteries via a wooden bridge. Furthermore, at most entrances there was a pavilion for the monks and travellers to rest. Between the inner and outer gate there was a dark passage, on the right side of which there was the guard's room.
The Courtyard and its Buildings
Entering the monastery from the main entrance, the visitor finds himself in the center of the courtyard, the shape of which depends on the shape of the wall surrounding the monastery. In smaller monasteries, such as the Dionysiou Monastery, the courtyard is limited to small corridors that extend around the katholikon. In this peculiar central square there are several public areas. These are buildings of different historical periods, which form a living chronicle of the monastery. All the buildings are oriented towards the central courtyard, as, for security reasons, no windows were opened to the outside.
The administration of the monastery is housed in a separate building, where there are the abbot and the monastery's secretariat, while the meetings of the brotherhood also take place there.
The hostel is usually located near the gate and is reserved for visitors and pilgrims. It is a separate building with a reception hall, with a dining room and bedrooms.
The monastery’s hospital is housed in a single room. In the past, some monasteries had their own doctor, which is very rare nowadays. However, there is always a monk who has the appropriate knowledge to provide first aid.
The monks' cells are located on the upper floors. Each one has his own room.
In the center of the square, in addition to the katholikon and the dining room, it is nowadays very common to place the sacristy and the library as well.
The Katholikon
The main church, the so-called katholikon, is the most important building. The church is located in the center courtyard. Interestingly, the katholikon of the athonite communities has special features that make it different from the churches of all the other Orthodox monasteries. In the latter, the church is supported by the walls of the monastery and has a separate entrance outside the courtyard.
The katholikon follows a particular type of byzantine church architecture. With the exception of the Holy Monastery of Stavronikita, the church is a complex rectangular construction with three main features. First, the architectural plan creates an equilateral cross, the sides of which are covered by semicylindrical arches. Four columns, raised at the corners of the intersections of the individual sides of the cross, hold up the dome. The latter is supported by columns and decorated with narrow windows. The cross, together with the four aisles surrounding it, forms the central part of the church. The second part is the “narthex”, which is placed in the western part, as an extension of the western side of the cross and is a kind of vestibule of the central part. The "chancel" is the third additional space, which extends the altar. It is located in the eastern part of the rectangle and is separated from the central part of the church by the iconostasis.
This architectural type of the athonite churches became particularly widespread after the middle of the 9th century. Its peculiarity is due to the addition of the four beds at the outer corners of the sides of the cross. As a result of this change, the arches supporting the dome did not rest on the walls, but on columns and pillars. In addition to the horizontal extension of the church, the latter was also extended vertically.
In some churches the narthex was converted into a vestibule, while in the western part of the church a narthex was added. This type of double narthex was characteristic of all the katholikos of the monasteries of Mount Athos from the 10th-11th centuries onwards.
This architectural design was followed by many monasteries that built their katholikon after the one of the Holy Monastery of Hilandar, which was built around 1293. Interestingly, even older constructions, such as those of the monasteries of Great Lavra, Vatopaidi and Iviron, followed this new trend of the time, combining the two narthexes into one, adding a long colonnade across the width of the nave.
On either side of the inner narthex there are chapels, which are usually domed with four columns and are miniatures of the nave. Today there are eight katholikos in Mount Athos. Six of these belong to monasteries built in rugged rocky areas and have only one chapel, while six other monasteries have none.
The churches of Mount Athos have many individual domes. Usually, two of them decorate the part of the Holy Altar, two the inner narthex and two others the additional chapels.
The first three katholikos of Mount Athos were models for all the other churches of the athonite monasteries, and later, for all the Orthodox monasteries of the world. An exception is the katholikon of the Holy Monastery of Stavronikita, which has several peculiarities due to its rocky terrain and limited area. During the Ottoman rule, the construction of new churches was forbidden, except certain cases where there were already foundations from earlier buildings. Since the Holy Monastery of Stavronikita was founded during the Ottoman period, we conclude that its church was erected on the site of the church of the old cell in the area.
The churches of Mount Athos are made of stone and are often decorated in red. Inside, there are marble floors and columns, wood-carved temples and stunning frescoes covering the entire surface from the floor to the dome.
Other Buildings of the Monasteries
The bell tower is located near the katholikon. It is often attached to other buildings, usually opposite the entrance of the katholikon, next to the trapeza or the entrance of the monastery. The first bell towers were independent of the individual buildings, as in the Holy Monastery of Vatopaidi or the Holy Monastery of Xenophontos. In some cases, as in the Holy Monastery of Esfigmenou, the bell tower is a building with small windows on each floor. In Athos, it is customary for the bells to ring only on Sundays and major festivals.
Opposite the entrance to the church there is the trapeza. These two buildings face opposite directions, as the gate of the katholikon faces west, while the one of the trapeza faces east. The latter was originally a separate building in the courtyard of the monastery, as in the case of the Holy Monastery of Great Lavra, whose trapeza is the oldest in Mount Athos. This was the model for all the rest, including those of the monasteries of Vatopaidi and Iviron. The same conclusion can be drawn from the trapeza of the monasteries of Koutloumousiou, Esfigmenou and Saint Panteleimon, despite the fact that in these cases the building is built into the walls surrounding the monastery. Of course, in most monasteries, due to the limited space available, the dining hall is part of the overall complex.
However, it always retains its own orientation, even if this requires it to be placed on the upper floor of another building. Exceptions to this rule are the monasteries of Dionysiou, Karakallou, Simonopetra, Stavronikita and Grigoriou, where, due to the limited area of the monastery, the dining halls have the same orientation as the church.
The trapeza is a rectangular building of specific dimensions. In some cases it has taken the shape of a cross (the Holy Monastery of Great Lavra, Vatopaidi, Xeropotamou) or the shape of the letter "T" (Dionysiou, Pantokrator, Docheiariou). The hall of the bank is always decorated with frescoes, following a special painting program.
Marble or wooden tables are arranged in the shape of a semi-square. At the back of the room, behind the elevated seat of the abbot, there is a small archway, often accompanied by two side niches. The location of the bench, directly opposite the katholikon, is related to the fact that the meal is provided immediately after the Divine Liturgy. In fact, it is considered the last part of the service, after which monks and pilgrims gather in the narthex to complete the ceremony.
Various auxiliary rooms, the kitchen, storerooms, etc. are located in a different building.
One of the main features of the courtyard of the athonite monasteries is the circular building of the baptismal font. The font is located between the katholikon and the living room. Due to the limited space, four monasteries do not have a font at all. The latter is surrounded by an octagonal or decagonal gallery, which supports the sloping roof. These are monumental structures decorated with reliefs, as well as frescoes referring to the Baptism of Jesus Christ, while the Holy Spirit is often depicted in the dome and scenes from the Old Testament are depicted lower down. The fresco decoration does not lack the presence of the Holy Virgin Mary, the patron saint of Mount Athos.
Among other things, many monasteries have chapels in the courtyard. These may be independent or united with other buildings. Chapels are also built outside the monastery walls as independent buildings, in towers, cemeteries, cells, huts and hermitages. In 1912, the total number of chapels reached 1000.
The Arsanas of the Monasteries
As there is no access to the peninsula of Mount Athos by land, all goods are imported and exported by sea. For this reason, all monasteries and sketes, regardless of their distance from the coast, have their own docks. In addition to the connection with the outside world, the docks are also used for fishing, which plays an important role in the life of the athonite monks. The arsanas is a small port for the arrival of ships that reach the athonite coast.
