Roussanou Monastery

Kalabaka, Greece

The Monastery of Roussanou was founded in the middle of the 16th century. Compared to other rocks where monasteries were built, the one of Roussanou has a lower elevation, which makes it more accessible. The monastery was initially founded by monks and it suffered severe damage during World War II. It became a convent in 1988. The beautiful wall-paintings of the Catholicon were executed in 1560, when the priest-monk Arsenios was the abbot of the monastery. The unknown hagiographer seems to have been a very skilful artist and successfully follows the Cretan School style.

References:

Comments

Your name

Website (optional)


Address

Meteora, Kalabaka, Greece
See all sites in Kalabaka

Details

Founded: c. 1550
Category: Religious sites in Greece

More Information

en.wikipedia.org
www.visitmeteora.travel
whc.unesco.org

Rating

4.7/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Monastery of Great Meteoron (0,7 km)
Varlaam Monastery (0,5 km)
Meteora (0,1 km)
Holy Trinity Monastery (1 km)
St. Stephen Monastery (1,5 km)
St. Nikolaos Anapafsas Monastery (0,7 km)

User Reviews

Nadolny -Reisen (15 months ago)
Wow ^ The Best of Kalambaka Greece
Nikolay Nikolov (15 months ago)
Small, easy access, beautiful views!
lolejko (17 months ago)
Amazing place. No words. No. 1 in all of Greece
Naveen Kumar Kotta (2 years ago)
Meteora is a collection of Christian-Orthodox monasteries nestled among stunning cliffs right in the heart of Greece. Dating back to the 1300s, the monasteries were purposely built to encourage isolation, fostering a spiritual connection. The Holy Trinity Monastery is the most difficult to reach, with about 140 steps to climb nearly straight up to the top. And they're still functioning with active monks acting as a form of living history.
Derek Zhou (2 years ago)
This is one of the smallest monastries with few areas accessible to public, and surprisingly no photos are allowed inside. Entrance fee is 3 euro per person (same as the other ones) which is steep compare to what can be seen here. Better to just look from outside.
Powered by Google

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Cultural Landscape of Sintra, Portugal
Photo from Flickr, copyright Polybert49

Historic Site of the week

Cochem Castle

The original Cochem Castle, perched prominently on a hill above the Moselle River, served to collect tolls from passing ships. Modern research dates its origins to around 1100. Before its destruction by the French in 1689, the castle had a long and fascinating history. It changed hands numerous times and, like most castles, also changed its form over the centuries.

In 1151 King Konrad III ended a dispute over who should inherit Cochem Castle by laying siege to it and taking possession of it himself. That same year it became an official Imperial Castle (Reichsburg) subject to imperial authority. In 1282 it was Habsburg King Rudolf’s turn, when he conquered the Reichsburg Cochem and took it over. But just 12 years later, in 1294, the newest owner, King Adolf of Nassau pawned the castle, the town of Cochem and the surrounding region in order to finance his coronation. Adolf’s successor, Albrecht I, was unable to redeem the pledge and was forced to grant the castle to the archbishop in nearby Trier and the Electorate of Trier, which then administered the Reichsburg continuously, except for a brief interruption when Trier’s Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg had to pawn the castle to a countess. But he got it back a year later.

The Electorate of Trier and its nobility became wealthy and powerful in large part due to the income from Cochem Castle and the rights to shipping tolls on the Moselle. Not until 1419 did the castle and its tolls come under the administration of civil bailiffs (Amtsmänner). While under the control of the bishops and electors in Trier from the 14th to the 16th century, the castle was expanded several times.

In 1688 the French invaded the Rhine and Moselle regions of the Palatinate, which included Cochem and its castle. French troops conquered the Reichsburg and then laid waste not only to the castle but also to Cochem and most of the other surrounding towns in a scorched-earth campaign. Between that time and the Congress of Vienna, the Palatinate and Cochem went back and forth between France and Prussia. In 1815 the western Palatinate and Cochem finally became part of Prussia once and for all.

Louis Jacques Ravené (1823-1879) did not live to see the completion of his renovated castle, but it was completed by his son Louis Auguste Ravené (1866-1944). Louis Auguste was only two years old when construction work at the old ruins above Cochem began in 1868, but most of the new castle took shape from 1874 to 1877, based on designs by Berlin architects. After the death of his father in 1879, Louis Auguste supervised the final stages of construction, mostly involving work on the castle’s interior. The castle was finally completed in 1890. Louis Auguste, like his father, a lover of art, filled the castle with an extensive art collection, most of which was lost during the Second World War.

In 1942, during the Nazi years, Ravené was forced to sell the family castle to the Prussian Ministry of Justice, which turned it into a law school run by the Nazi government. Following the end of the war, the castle became the property of the new state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 1978 the city of Cochem bought the castle for 664,000 marks.

Map Top Sights Tags Historical Periods City Guides About Us Sign Up Upload new site
© 2020 SpottingHistory.com. All rights reserved.