The second contact print from the Cas Oorthuys files in the Dutch photo museum contains pictures of Karyes, the Protaton church, and pictures of men (with the writer A. den Doolaard?) on the road with mules, probably going from Karyes to the monastery Xeropotamou.
Here is an image of the clock tower belonging to the Protaton church in Karyes, with a man pulling a loaded mule. In the background the building of the Holy Epistatia, the main seat of the government on Athos.
On this next picture, made on the same spot, you see that construction labor is being done on the outside walls of the Protaton. It looks as if the original stones of the outside walls of the church are being covered with a plaster, that was still there when I took the picture below in 1986.
During the last renovations of the Protaton, when the fundaments were also secured, all of this (ugly) grey plaster has been removed and the original stones reapeared, as you see on the picture above.
Xeropotamou monastery seen from above.
A large group of mules pass the pilgrims when they go to the next monastery, somewhere near Xeropotamou (?). Cas Oorthuys and his two fellow travelers had only one mule.
A monk passes by on his own mule.
The entrance to the monastery Xeropotamou with the mule of Cas Oorthuys (?). The pine trees on this picture are gone today.
Xeropotamou: the entrance with a monk
Xeropotamou: the pilgrims enter the monastery
The Xeropotamou entrance in 2019: almost nothing changed. The glass frame that protects the painting of the 40 martyrs above the door has been replaced by a modern one and the frames of the windows that have been slightly changed. The windows on the second floor are smaller and the color blue with some decorations were added on the wall. The pine trees has been cut down and vines have taken their place, just like the situation in 1928 (see postcard below).
Somewhere outside Xeropotamou (?): a man on a mule
A man sitting on a fence, bare-chested. This photo must have been taken somewhere outside a monastery, because monks would not allow any half-naked men in their surroundings. It is unknown to me who this might be, maybe their guide Asterios Kyriasis? According to me this man does not resamble the writer mr. A. den Doolaard.
Wim Voogd, 28 december 2020
