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Light and sea ... The humble port of the monastery of Simon and Petra does not predispose his imposing ruler, the homonymous seven-storey monastery that stands on a vertical mountain slope. This masterpiece of architecture exploits the chaos of Athos by making it its bastion.
The transcendent has always marked the monastery's history since it was founded. It is said that Saint Simon built it in this place in the 14th century, following a Christmas star.

And when the builders who were hired to make it were afraid to move over the cliff, a miracle showed them that the god wants it: the underling who was treating the builders, slipped and dropped to the cliff, but he stood up on airy wings, alive and smiling. The New Bethlehem, of course, was at the birth of Christ.

The vertical cliffs momentarily deceive ... The monastery looks low in height from afar, its stone foundation remains hidden from the rocky volume rising in front of our eyes. However, the stone of Saint Simon would become its shield, since only one of the raiders of the other monasteries of Athos dared to reach here, and these were the Turks. However, repeated fires (especially that of 1580 that completely destroyed it along with its archive) destroyed its wealth, leaving it almost naked of hagiographies and heirlooms.

A commune monastery in the middle of the previous century that had fifty monks, its debts were many and the condition of the building was dangerous. Fortunately, extensive restoration works are taking place today and its population has been strengthened by educated young monks of Meteora.

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