Holy Monastery of Rusanos

The Monastery of Roussanos is located between the monasteries of Agios Nikolaos Anapaussa and Varlaam, on the road from the village of Kastraki to Meteora. It is built on an impressive vertical pillar and its building complex covers the entire plateau of the top of the steep cliff, of which it looks like a natural extension. The pilgrim and visitor, from up there, enjoys all the splendour and magic of the unchanging meteoric landscape and the faithful Christian feels, for a moment, reformed and elevated to the heavens, where the souls of the holy pilgrims and hermits, who with their ascetic life and deeds sanctified these blessed rocks, are located and exalted. To the east one can see the Monastery of the Holy Trinity and St. Stephen a little further away, to the west the Monastery of Varlaam and the Monastery of the Great Meteor further on. The stone forest of countless gigantic rocks stretches all around and in the distance the mountain ranges of Koziacas and Pindos.

The ascent to the monastery, which used to be done with a wind ladder, is nowadays done comfortably with cement steps and two small solid bridges, which were built in 1930 with a donation from the scarlet lady Daphne G. Buka, during the reign of Metropolitan Polycarp [Thomas] of Trikki and Stagi. Already in 1868, for the easier and safer ascent to the monastery, under the abbot Gideon, a wooden bridge had been built to replace the dangerous windmills.

The Monastery of Roussanou, after its radical renovation and restoration in the 1980s by the competent Archaeological Service of the region, operates as a nunnery.

The reason for the name of the Monastery of Roussanos is not verified. Various interpretations have been proposed, most of which do not correspond to the facts. Most probably, the name is due to the first settler of the rock or the builder of the original old church (16th/ 17th century). The monastery of Rusanos is mentioned under this name in official documents and texts from the third decade of the 16th century, which means that the rock was known by this name in the past as well.