Monastery Rousanos

At the tall, vertical rock of Meteora, between the monasteries of Varlaam and Agios Nikolaos Anapafsa, is the monastery Rousanos, which rewards the visitor with the impressive view of the surrounding area. Its catholicon is dedicated to the Transfiguration of Christ and its name, as it is mentioned in official documents already from the middle of the 16th century, it is possible that it is related to the name of the first ascetic or the founder of the first church.

The present day catholicon was constructed in 1530, possibly over the ruins of older buildings. Its founders were the brother priest-monks from Ioannina, Ioasaf and Maximos, who settled at the rock in the period 1527-1529, as testified by the written testament of 1545, which mentions the reconstruction of the monastery. The two monks organized the coenobium, and also built cells and auxiliary areas.

The monastery complex has three floors and one climbs to it through stairs. The catholicon is a cross-in-square church, with a dome supported by two columns. It belongs to the so-called “Athonite” triconch type, where apart from the eastern semicircular conches at the two sides of the church, which are called “choirs”, because there stand the chanters. On the west there was a spacious narthex, the common “liti” of the monasteries. The interior of the church is covered with excellent wall painting decoration, which, according to the inscription that survives over the entrance of the main church, it was carried out with the expenses of the abbot of the monastery of Arsenios, in the year 1560. This is a remarkable work from the middle of the 16th century, from the so-called “Cretan School” and can be attributed to the important icon painter of that period, Tzortzi or Zorzi, who is also considered responsible for the wall paintings of the Great Meteoron.

It is a women’s monastery and celebrates on the 6th of August, but It also honors the memory of St Varvara, on the 4th of December.