In three posts (1269, 1270 and 1272) I showed you pictures of almost all Konaki’s of the monasteries in Karyes. One of the missing was the Konaki of Lavra, nr 65, just outside the map below, on the far right.
in September 2014 I was able to pay a visit to this building, here is how I walked from the centre of Karyes:
On the Google map image below you see the where I took the pictures:
But first let me show you building 1, because my second aim for visiting to Karyes was to meet the famous iconpainters the Pachomaioi brothers. On my second visit to Athos in 1986 the Dutch archondaris of Dionysiou, Sergeij Bollen, gave us the advice to pay a visit to these two men. East from Karyes we found an old house where two relatively young men had their workshop.
Inside the workshop of the Pachomaioi- 1986. The brothers showed us their icons and this is the one I ordered. My Nikolaos icon arrived one year later and is still hanging in my living room.
With the help of a few people we found the current home of the Pachomaioi brothers: unfortunately they were not in, a friendly man explianed us: they were in Thessaloniki. The old house does not exsist anymore; today the brothers live in a large villa, with a solid fence around it. Maybe on a next Athos visit I’ll be able to meet them and thank them for teh lovely icon they made for me 28 years ago.
The house of the Pachomaioi brothers
But let’s continue with foto nr 2, 3 and 4, the Lavra Konaki.
Left of this building a monopati starts, leading to skiti Koutloumousiou (?)
The Lavra konakti: a large and well kept house.
Photo 5 shows other buildings/kelli in the outskirts of Karyes.
Photo 7/8, building 27: might this be a Dionysiou or Grigoriou konaki?
Photo 7: taken from the path that leads to the Lavra konaki
Photo 9: a ruined house with scaffolding
The Vatopedi konaki, still under construction (building 28 on the plan above).
The broken door of the old Esfigmenou konaki (photo nr 10)
The old Esfigmenou konaki – photo 10 (building nr 23)
Back at the bus square in Karyes with its shops (photo 11)
Karyes main street
Wim, 17/6
