The documentary I showed you in the last blog (1820) has some interesting scenes from unknown places on Athos. But first I will show you a few stills from Panteleimonos, starting with a picture from an (very) old monk, who looks familiar to me. Could he be one of last remaining Russian monks and the one I saw in 1980, when only eight monks (of which two Greek) were left in this huge monastery?This is Abbot Jeremiah. He will turn 101 in October.(thanks Alex)An old picture from Panteleimonos, a laboratory (is this the place where the monks developped their photo negatives?)Panteleimonos: a ssteamboat on shore with a sunroofPanteleimonos: monks in workwear, carrying baskets near large vessels – the harvest of grapes or olives?Panteleimonos: the construction of the pier.This is also a picture of the construction of the pier, but I found this one on another documentary, look here. The ship on background has still has sails, so must be an old picture!Skiti Andreou or Serail seen from a drone.Old Russian church – the kellion of St. John. Chrysostom,  belonging to Hilandar monastery (thanks Alex). I have seen this building a couple of times from a distance, but afterwards I could never figger out where to place it on a map, until I saw the following shots, made with a drone.Because when the drone flew over the ruined roof of the building, suddenly Skiti Andreou appeared in the background – on the left – Skiti Andreou , see the next picture:Skiti Andreou in the left corner. The marking point gave me the opportunity to have search on Google maps, and here it is, just above the word “on” in this text, not far from Maroudá kellion. Another Athos mystery is solved! In the grid below pictures from the interior:

But at the same time new mysteries arise, because of this building on the next picture:An unknown building with a small chapel, seen from a drone. Thanks to our reader Alex I now know this is Сhorny Vyr skete (could be translated as “black whirlpool”). It was founded by cossacks of the Zaporozhian Sich and is situated somewhere near Zografou monastery.There is well kept wide path covered with grass leading to this house/ruin:According to the (chesnut) trees and vegetation it should be somewhere in the neighbourhood of and above Karyes, in the direction North and far from the ridge path, is my guess. Who can help me? Thanks Alex who came to help me without a few hours!

The building is almost in ruins, but inside some the interior is left.

Yet another reason to go back to Athos soon and try to find this building. Next week our group of pilgrims will have our first meeting to discuss the itinerary for May 2017!

Wim Voogd, 26/5

Here on Google maps is the exact location of “cossack”-settlement, on the left from road with the name “skitis”. Wim, 27/5 13 h.