If you follow me for some time you should know that I used to work for a travel magazine and I have spent 3 years traveling all over Greece taking pictures of a great variety of destinations. One thing I like to do on my spare time is to open old folders and re-live those travels by re-editing some of the shots I took back then! Sometimes the memories are very strong and I don't need any other info to write a post but sometimes I have to do some googling about the place I have visited. And there are times, like today, that I am shocked by the scrappy and incomplete brief I had before my visit!
It was a nice day of May, ten years ago. I was at Rhodes island and the plan of the day was to visit the Filerimos monastery, a few km away from the town. Sounded like a routine shooting, one more of the countless monasteries I have taken pictures of...
The cobbled path in front of the entrance was intriguing though and anyway I had to follow all those people going that way! What I didn't know was that I was walking on the "route of Martyrdom" or "via Dolorosa", a road under the shade of pine trees dedicated to Jesus Christ's suffering, leading to a 17 meters (around 56 foot) high cross! I have to admit that I didn't even noticed the copper engravings on the side of the road that illustrate the way to crucifixion in 14 articulate representations. You can see one of them in the picture below that I included in my picture accidentally :)
The path was made by the Italian rulers of the island between 1912 and 1945 but the cross itself was re-made in the 90s since the original one was destroyed during World War II. Inside there is a staircase that leads to the top, providing a panoramic view of the whole area, till the Turkish coastline! (One more thing I have missed!)
At the entrance of the monastery there was a peacock checking the traffic while some others were in a more district position!
The Filerimos monastery is built on top of ancient ruins so we are talking about a location with 30 centuries of use as a place of worship. The buildings standing today are only 5-6 centuries old 😃, renovated by the Italians. The ruins at the picture below are from the ancient temple dedicated to Zeus and Athena and it is dated at the 4th century BC. A ton of history in layers! And as I learned today there were a lot more cool stuff to take picture of that I missed but I already told you, I haven't done my homework :)
I continued my day driving around and I stopped for a quick shot of the temple of Apollo Pythios at the ancient acropolis of Rhodes but my mind was already to my next, crucial appointment...
... at one of the best seafood restaurants of the island!
All the pictures and the words are mine.
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