MONKS' ROCKY HOTEL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 108, 2 November 1929, Page 20

MONKS' ROCKY HOTEL

WINE 150 YEARS OLD

Unvisited by the ' ordinary tourist, there \tles in the heart of the Peloponnesian mountains, on tho borders of Arcadia, the Monastery of Megaspilaion. -■ ■■- ' :- ■■■''■■ -■■'-•■ - Turning his back on the tourmaline waters of tlio Gul£ Of' Cbrinth at Diakophto, the traveller steps into a little rack-aad-pinion train, and winds up with it through, precipitous gorges to the village of Zachlorou. • Here, he must transfer his belongings to a.mule, and for an hour walk or ride up steep mountain paths, until" the "monastery is in sight—a kaleidoscopic medley of pink, yellow, green, and egg-blue wash, standing out against the sombro rock to which, like a swallow's nest, it is made fast,.says a writer in the "Daily Telegraph.'' A sheer 5000 ft above it rise vertical cliffs, cVo'iyned with.aii iron cross. A hundred' years agoj when the Turks tried to drop rocks and. burning hay on it from above, their missiles fell harmlessly' twenty feet out from the monastery wail.-- ■ ■ ■-' .'::..... Twelve centuries ago, say the monks,a herd-maiden of imperial descent, named Euphrosyne, sheltering in- a deep cavern in the face of the cliff, found a miraculous ikon of the. Virgin, the work of St. Luke the.Evangelist.. Over the front of_.the cave the Emperor Constautine Palaiologos built a monastery, of which the cave is the chapel. Behind a silver grille of exquisite workmanship is the original ikon, the PanagiaChrysospiliotissa,- or Virgin of the Golden Cave, a rough relief in wax, apparently of great .age, encased in silver and jewels. "'-■■ Underneath the.chapel, built into a lower compartment of the cave, are two enormous barrels, 150 years old, to which the monks have playfully given the Greek .Christian names of Stamata and Evangelic Stamata holds 5000 gallons of sugary, resin-flavoured red wine, and Evahgelio nearly as much. The monks, .venerable greybeards, iii tall black, hats and cassocks, contemplate them with reverence. "