Xenophontos: Exteriors

I am back to blogging about my trip with Frank.  Since it is all retrospective, I will be organizing by themes rather than strict chronology, although I will feature the places we went in order.  The first place on Mt. Athos was the "Holy Monatery of Xenophontos" on peninsula of Mt. Athos, the "Holy Mountain."   We stayed there the longest. This is a view from down the beach.

From the outside, it doesn't look particularly beautiful, because most these monasteries were built with outer fortifications against pirates and other raiders.  Behind the reddish domes of the new church, you can see the great tower, which looks much taller from other angles.  These were lookouts and places to light fires of warning to other monasteries.  In the next view, you can see the top of the tower just below the peak.

 This view above is from the end of the pier and shows the area where Frank and I stayed--our rooms were on the first level above the the stone work, just to the right of the light-blue, projecting balcony. We had a more integrated balcony, which also overlooked the sea. Our area was actually part of the abbot's wing, and staying there was an honor we received because of Frank.

 This is a view of the passage through the walls from the official front gate.  Narrow and twisting, it was easily defensible back in the day, but now there is no need and the open door you see leads into the gift shop.

 The interior is where the real beauty is.  This is a partial view of the "new" church with its stone-and-brick patterning.  When we get to Pantokrator, you will see really beautiful examples of this.

Projecting rooms and balconies are a regular feature of Greek monastic architecture. They yield more living space without enlarging the foundation.  Although some are perched very high on the outer walls (as in the second picture), they are not as precarious as they seem.  The main supports are actually the horizontal beams projecting out from the thick walls in what is called cantilevering, with the diagonal bracket arms forming secondary (but critical!) support.

This is it for now. I will look at interiors in the next post.