RELIGIOUS TOURISM IN GREECE

The wealth of its Byzantine monuments makes Greece the perfect destination for thousands of religious pilgrims. Monuments of centuries-old ecclesiastic architecture and art, innumerable churches and monasteries give testimony to the country's rich religious heritage.

Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in cities or in small villages, cathedrals, small churches in the countryside, monasteries and cells, decorated with excellent mosaics, paintings and icons, testify the persistence of faith and tradition.

In western Thessaly, Meteora, the 14th century Byzantine monasteries, are sinuously perched on the summits of smooth and vertical grey rock pinnacles. Built on the easternmost finger on the Halkidiki peninsula of northern Greece, the over 1000-year-old monastic community of Mt. Athos includes twenty monasteries containing some of the finest examples of Byzantine treasures and a plethora of classical and medieval manuscripts. Finally, on the island of Patmos, the monastery of St. John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse, where St. John is believed to have written the Book of Revelation in the later part of the 1st century AD, count among the most wondrous monuments world-wide.

Travellers following the steps of St Paul through the biblical sites of Corinth, Lechaion, Cenchrea, Athens, Thessaloniki, Philippi, Christoupolis (today's Kavalla) - the first European city to convert to Christianity - and the island of Rhodes, are on a journey to an unforgettable religious experience.