Monastery of Varlaam

The Monastery of Varlaam, also known as the Monastery of All Saints, is a Greek Orthodox monastery situated on an enormous isolated rock formation in the Meteora region of Thessaly, central Greece, directly opposite the Great Meteoron Monastery. It is the second-largest of the six surviving active monasteries of Meteora and takes its name from the hermit Varlaam, who settled on the rock during the fourteenth century, traditionally around 1350. He established a small religious community and constructed several modest buildings, including a chapel dedicated to the Three Hierarchs, but the site was gradually abandoned following his death. The monastery was re-established in 1517–1518 by two brothers from Ioannina, Theophanes and Nektarios Apsarades, who restored the earlier buildings and began constructing a much larger complex. In 1536, they erected a lifting tower equipped with a rope-and-pulley mechanism to transport building materials, provisions and people up the sheer rock face. The present main church, or katholikon, dedicated to All Saints, was completed in 1541–1542 in the Athonite architectural style. Its interior was decorated with elaborate frescoes in 1548 by Frangos Katelanos of Thebes, while the spacious narthex was painted in 1566 by the brothers Georgios and Frangos Kontaris. The smaller Chapel of the Three Hierarchs was rebuilt in 1627 and decorated with frescoes ten years later. For centuries, access to Varlaam depended on removable wooden ladders and large nets suspended from the lifting tower, a method that was eventually supplemented by a staircase of approximately 195 steps carved into the rock in 1923. The historic lifting mechanism survives, although a modern transport system now assists with moving supplies. The monastery also retains its original refectory, kitchen, residential quarters and a small museum containing religious manuscripts, icons, embroidered vestments and other ecclesiastical treasures. It remains an active monastic community and forms part of the Meteora UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1988.

The Monastery of Varlaam has appeared in Jupiter’s Thigh (1980), originally titled On a volé la cuisse de Jupiter, a French adventure comedy directed by Philippe de Broca. The production used the monastery during its extended Greek treasure-hunt storyline, in which two newlyweds and their companions become involved in the theft of an ancient marble statue. Varlaam represents the remote monastery where another fragment of the sculpture has been preserved, providing the setting for a spectacular attempt to remove the valuable antiquity by helicopter. The film was shot in Greece between September and November 1979, approximately a year before the James Bond production For Your Eyes Only (1981) arrived in Meteora and became involved in a widely publicised dispute with the local monastic communities.

In Jupiter’s Thigh (1980), originally titled On a volé la cuisse de Jupiter, the Monastery of Varlaam appears during the film’s extended climax, when French police commissioner Lise Tanquerelle, played by Annie Girardot, and her husband Antoine Lemercier, played by Philippe Noiret, follow a trail of stolen antiquities to the isolated monastery in Meteora. The couple are searching for the remaining fragments of an ancient marble statue, which have become the subject of an international art-smuggling operation. Upon reaching the monastery, they observe a monk being raised to the summit in a small open-air lifting cage operated manually by another monk using a large winch. Unable to gain access through the normal entrance, Lise and Antoine return after nightfall and attempt to operate the mechanism themselves. Their improvised ascent ends disastrously when Lise loses control of the winch handle, sending Antoine and the lifting cage crashing back down to the ground. The couple instead begin climbing the steep rock face, eventually discovering a suspended rope ladder that allows them to reach the monastery above. The sequence makes extensive use of Varlaam’s imposing exterior, with the monastery’s stone buildings, red-tiled roofs and distinctive octagonal church domes visible above the cliffs. Once at the summit, Lise and Antoine discover a helicopter waiting to transport the valuable statue fragment away from the monastery. The marble sculpture is subsequently carried outside and attached to a cable beneath the aircraft. As the helicopter takes off, the couple grab hold of the suspended statue, leaving them dangling high above the ground while the aircraft flies out over the spectacular rock formations of Meteora. Their combined weight destabilises the helicopter, bringing the art-smuggling operation to a dramatic conclusion. The extended sequence preserves views of Varlaam and its traditional lifting equipment, while the aerial photography incorporates wide panoramas of the surrounding Meteora landscape.

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