Finally, after a long day and a few minutes before 5 o’clock in the afternoon, we arrived at our destination, the monastery of Karakalou.

To our surprize a monk came to us and told us to hurry, because the service in church was about to begin and if we wanted to join, we shouldn’t wast time. Strangely enough this message was not spoken in Greek but in Dutch! We were welcomed by a Dutch Athos monk named Pachomios!

After the service in front of the katholicon: monk Pachomiou talking to his fellow Dutchman. He had  been living in Karakalou for 4 months and before that in an Orthodox monastery in France. This very friendly and warm person originally came from Surinam and lived in The Hague in Holland. He showed us around in the church and made us feel very welcome!

monk Pachomiou (photo by Jan Paul ten Bruggencate May 2012)

Courtyard of Karakalou: monk Pachomiou (photos above thanks to Jitze)

Plan of Karakalou from Mylonas

Karakalou by Barski 1747

Karakalou 264 years later

Karakalou: tower (E on the plan) and entrance, seen from outside the monastery

Karakalou garden

Entrance (A and Delta on the plan)

Guesthouse and balconies (plan: M)

Stairs to the guesthouse, katholicon and tower

Katholicon (building H and the left)

Katholicon and tower

Building Z

Unsharp photo of the well in the courtyard

Bronze Bell on the tower. This wasn’t there in 1986 when I first visited Karakalou and it will pay an important role in one of the following posts, because I’ve seen it before on a very different place on Mount Athos………

Bedroom in Karakalou

This ends our first (very long) day on Athos in 2011. Next time I will show you some more pictures of Karakalou and its fresco’s.

On the tower in 1986

Wim, 30/3