2186 – the Dutch photographer Cas Oorthuys and Athos in 1957-3

source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam: contact print nr 3

The third contact print from the Cas Oorthuys files in the Dutch photo museum contains pictures of Simonos Petras and Docheiariou. He did not visit these monasteries, because photographs up close are missing. And on this contact print number 99027 I run into a chronological problem. The two monasteries are in fact far apart and between the monastery are the harbor town of Dafni, Xenofontos and the Russian monastery Panteleimonos situated. Cas Oorthuys did pay a visit to this Russian monastery, as we will see on the next contact print, that I will publish later. I suspect that Cas Oorthuys confused his travel schedule afterwards and that he accidentally pasted Docheiariou into his contact printout earlier.

source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam

Simonos Petras monastery, seen from the arsanas – harbor. This probably one of the finest monasteries on the Holy Mountain, that looms over the rocks on which it is built. Many people say this monastery resambles the Tibetian monasteries in the Himalaya.

Simonos Petras in 2009. The building on the right is recently constructed, it is part of the archondariki and contains the rooms for special guests – photos Wim Voogd
source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam
Simonos Petras arsanas 2015 – foto Wim Voogd

The arsanas of Simonos Petras in 1957 and – by coincidence – my photo on the same spot, 58 years later.

source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam

Simonos Petras

source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam

The monastery of Docheiariou, seen from a boat. This is the last monastery that you will see from the baot before arriving in Ouranopolis. As you can see on the map below it is very far from Simonos Petras.

source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam

Docheiariou monastery in 1957.

Docheiariou in 1980 – photo Wim Voogd

When we visited this monastery in 1980 we were the only two pilgrims. We met a professor from Thessaloniki, who microfilmed the books from the library and gave us a tour in the old tower. I remember the age-old parchment covers and the pages that had tiny holes, made by the bookworms. One of the bound pages would be a page from a 4th century book.

source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam

Four fishermen in their boat at the harbor of Docheiariou, one of them drinking water from a bucket.

source: Cas Oorthuys / Nederlands fotomuseum Rotterdam

Docheiariou: another photo of the fishermen in their boat and the jetty.

Wim Voogd, 29 December 2020

This entry was posted in 10 Docheiariou, 13 Simonos Petras, art, Uncategorized and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply