Athos penisula in Halkidiki

Is  the eastern peninsula of  Halkidiki also called the peninsula of Athos. This is the only place in Greece that is fully dedicated to prayer and worship of God and so it is known as the Holy Mount. Mount Athos  is the oldest monastic community  still in existence.
The natural beauty of the peninsula is extraordinary.

Where to go

Ouranoupolis
This great journey starts from the airport of Thessalonica and ends after 145km at the end of the road at the foot of the old Byzantine tower in the center of Ouranoupolis village. The small village is blessed with mild climate and clear blue sea and endless golden beaches.
Arnea and Stagira :The border to Mount Athos

 Is an old town only 5km from Ouranoupolis with traditional stone built houses and wooden balconies hanging over the narrow streets. The road cuts throw the center of town where an ancient tree stands tall over the town square and from its foot a clear spring pours crystal cold water.

After leaving Arnea the road takes you down the hill through luscious forests of pine and chestnut trees to the birth town  of Aristotle the philosopher, Stagira. Where there is a statue of Aristotle the teacher of Alexander the Great .

Ammouliani

It is small island of 4,5 sq Km with great beaches, like ALIKES, AG.GEORGIOS, NISAKIA, MEG.AMMOS, KARAGATSIA, as well as small ports where everyone can enjoy the blue sea with plenty of fish waiting those who enjoy fishing. Its reach sea-bed offers a great variety of under-water fishing and diving.
Green predominates everywhere on this island, full of olive trees and low vegetation.
Lots of pathways are accessible for lonely strolls far from the traffic.
Across the water with a very short boat ride from Ouranoupolis is a small group of deserted islands some of them no more than rocks rising from the sea. There is Ammouliani which is the largest one and it is inhabited. A traditional fishing village with wonder full sandy beaches.
This is a paradise of golden sand and clear blue sea.
The unbelievably sparkling limpid sea crowded with fishes in all varieties and dolphins.
A few olive trees provide shelter from the sun and the tavern provides sustenance, fresh fish and draught lager or local tsipouro.  

Sarti

Sarti is another favorite destination where it is said that fro the beach one can count the  Monasteries at Mount Athos. Fireworks light every August 15th during the Assumption of The Virgin Mary celebrations when the moon is full. There are numerous store, taverns, cafes and water  sports are offered along the beautiful beach.

Sarti is situated on the Eastern shores of Sithonia. It was named after the Ancient city of Sarti, probably situated in the same area. The name "SARTI" can be found in the writings of Herodotus. It was visited by Xerxes' expeditionary forces. Ancient Sarti was a member of the Athenian Alliance.

Mount Athos

Mount Athos or Agion oros  as it is locally known is the oldest surviving monastic community in the world. It goes back more than a thousand years to Byzantine times. It is a unique monastic republic which although part of Greece it is governed by it’s own local administration. It occupies the best part of the Athos peninsula in Halkidiky. Inside the monasteries and the numerous churches there is an unimaginable wealth of unique treasures.
Mount Athos has preserved the largest collection of Christian art in the world ,a heritage amassed over many centuries, the donations of successive Byzantine ,Russian and Slav emperors.  

It is not only a living museum, but also a place for prayer  and contemplation, free from external influences. The way of life there has been preserved in it’s purest form.

more about Mount Athos

To the Orthodox, the Holy Mountain is the heart of the Church. It is here that Orthodox monasticism has found its centre since the end of the first millennium, and here that it still lives on in its thousand-year-old traditions. To the monastic, student of monasticism, or general monastic enthusiast, there are few places more interesting and inviting than the Holy Mountain.

"Mount Athos" is the name of the peak which rises 2,033 metres out of the sea at the southernmost point of the northernmost peninsula of Halkidiki in Macedonia, Greece; yet often the entire peninsula is simply called "Athos". Officially, however, its Greek name is Aghion Oros: the Holy Mountain.

Political Situation

The Holy Mount is a self- governed part of the Greek state, subject to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its political aspect and to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinopole as regards its religious aspect. 
It has been divided into twenty self- governed territories. Each territory consists of a cardinal monastery and some other monastic establishments that surround it (cloisters, cells, cottages, seats, hermitages). 
All the monasteries are communes (of a convent nature) which means that there is common liturgy, prayer, housing, nourishing and work among the monks. The Superior of the monastery, being elected by the monks for life, is responsible for the affairs of the monastery. The Superiors of the monasteries are members of the Holy Assembly and exercise legislative authority. 
Moreover, every year the monastery elects its representative to the Holy Community which exercises administrative authority, while the Holy Supervision exercises executive authority and consists of 4 members, elected by the 5 hierarchically preceding monasteries. 


Monasteries:

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, monks and nuns follow a similar ascetic discipline. Unlike Roman Catholics, there is only one form of monasticism for the Orthodox. Monastics, male or female, live lives away from the world, in order to pray for the world. They do not run hospitals and orphanages, they do not teach or care for the sick; it is expected for lay people to do these things to work out their own salvation. Monasteries can be very large or very small. The largest monasteries can hold many thousands of monks and are called lavras. Small monasteries are often called “sketes” and usually only have one elder and 2 or 3 disciples. There are higher levels to ascetic practice but the monks who practice these do not live in monasteries, but alone. When monks live together, work together, and pray together, following the directions of the abbot and the elder monks, this is called a cenobium. The idea behind this is when you put many men together, like rocks with sharp edges, their “sharpness” becomes worn away and they become smooth and polished. One of the great centers of Orthodox monasticism is the Mt. Athos (also called Holy Mountain) in an isolated, self-governing peninsula approximately 20 miles long and 5 miles wide (similar to the Vatican, being a separate government), administered by the heads of the 20 major monasteries, and dotted with hundreds of smaller monasteries, sketes, and hesicaterons. Even today the population of the Holy Mountain numbers in the tens of thousands of monastics (men only) and cannot be visited except by men with special permission granted by both the Greek government and the government of the Holy Mountain itself.

Mount Athos History:

An ancient story claims the Blessed Virgin Mary was sailing accompanied by St John the Evangelist on her way from Joppa to Cyprus to visit Lazarus. When the ship was blown off course to then pagan Athos it was forced to drop anchor near the port of Klement, close to the present monastery of Iviron. The Virgin walked ashore and, overwhelmed by the wonderful and wild natural beauty of the mountain, she blessed it and asked her Son for it to be her garden. A voice was heard; "let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved". Since that moment the mountain was consecrated as the garden of the Mother of God and was out of bounds to all other women.

Mount Athos as a monastic community was formally founded in 963, when the monk Athanasios established the monastery of Great Lavra, still the largest and most prominent of the 20 monasteries. It enjoyed the protection of the emperors of the Byzantine Empire during the following centuries and its wealth and possessions grew considerably. The Fourth Crusade in the 13th century brought new Roman Catholic overlords which forced the monks to seek protection from Pope Innocent III, until the restoration of the Byzantine Empire. It was raided by Catalan mercenaries in the 14th century, a century that also saw the theological conflict over the hesychasm practised on Mount Athos and defended by Gregory Palamas.
The Byzantine Empire collapsed in the 15th century and the newly established Islamic Ottoman Empire took over. They heavily taxed the monasteries, but for the most part left them alone. The population of monks and their wealth declined over the next centuries, but was revitalised around the 19th century by the donations and new arrivals from other Eastern Orthodox countries, such as Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia and each country came to exert its influence on individual monasteries. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, the Ottomans were forced out and after a brief conflict between Greece and Russia over sovereignty, the peninsula formally came under Greek sovereignty after World War I.
According to the constitution of Greece, Mount Athos (the Regime of Aghion Oros) is politically self-governed and consists of 20 main monasteries (which constitute the Holy Community to administer the territory) and the capital city and administrative centre, Karyes, also home to a governor as the representative of the Greek state. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Beyond the monasteries there are 12 sketae, smaller communities of monks, as well as many (solitary) hermitages throughout the peninsula. All persons leading a monastic life thereon acquire Greek citizenship without further formalities, upon admission as novices or monks. Visits to the peninsula are possible for laymen, but they need special permission.
In order to reduce sexual temptation, women are completely barred from the peninsula, a fact which has earned a certain amount of fame; even female domestic animals (with the exception, some say, of cats, as well as chickens which lay eggs that provide the fresh egg yolk needed for the paint used in iconography are forbidden. However, during the Greek Civil War, Athos did shelter refugees including women and girls.
In modern times, the Mount Athos monasteries have repeatedly been struck by wildfires, e.g. in August 1990, and in March 2004, fire gutted a large section of the Serbian monastary, Hilandar. Due to the secluded locations of the monasteries, often atop small hills, as well as the unavailability of suitable fire fighting gear, the damages inflicted by these fires are often considerable.