The coloured glasswindows on Athos have got a lot in common. They all seem to consist of a combination of bright coloured glassplates. One colour per plate. They are not all framed in lead but mostly in wood. There are no figurative elements, no religious themes like in western european churches. It is merely a combination of simple abstract forms: squares, circles. The simple and straight shapes makes them attractive. The simple geometry and symmetry forms a counterpoint with the busy church interiors.
I am showing a couple of the windows from our september 2009 trip in chronological order. We came ashore in Panteleimonos.
The next place in which we discovered coloured glass was in Iviron.
The following coloured glass is photographed in Pantokratoros, both from within the Katholikon.
The last picture is taken in Vatopaidiou. It is taken from the main gate. Fellow travellers Jaap and Herman (with red cap) can be seen. 
Bas Kamps
One of the problems we have in Greece is that there are way too many left-wing liberals. Remember the December riots? These people in the facebook group are your typical atheist liberal douche that dislike the fact that Greece is still a fairly christian and traditional country.. They dislike Mount Athos for what it represents. Even if the avaton was ever abolished they wouldn’t even bother going there.. What they dream of is a multicultural atheist consumer society stripped of any sense of identity.. Morons…
It’s quite unlikely that the avaton will be abandoned soon.
The Meteora Monasteries were once organised just like Mount Athos. In order to “restrict temptations”, this area too was forbidden for women, and “beardless boys” until about 1960. The abolition of the avaton at the Meteora led to the restoration of 2 monasteries by nuns, but also to a massive influx of tourists, which makes monastic life very difficult. This was the main reason for the present community of Simonopetra to run off to Mount Athos!