Rock of the Holy Spirit - Monks' Prison of Meteora

Drone / aerial view - Rock of the Holy Spirit Meteora, Greece

Device: Mavic 2 Zoom
Edited in Adobe Premiere Pro

As you explore through the Kalambaka, its hard to miss one of the rock pillars of Meteora, where lies a huge cave portal. Not the kind of cave you know from karst areas, there is actually no dark part. The smooth rock face of the conglomerate has a huge but shallow hole, like an entrance which ends immediately.
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The overhanging rock is obviously formed by softer rock, which eroded much faster. Even the monks used that fact and cut cells into the rock, which were reached on wooden ladders or with ropes. So this huge cavern has numerous small chambers in the rear wall.
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In numerous guidebooks this caves are described as prison cells for errant monks. The idea is actually, that monks who did not obey monastery rules had to stay in the ancient cells or on wooden platform until they changed their mind.
Probably the ladders were removed so they could not escape.

Regarding the prison for Monks at Meteora, which is known also as the Rock of the Holy Spirit, there are various traditions surrounding it with no positive identification. For example, we know that in the last half of the 18th century the Turkish-Albanians occupied this area and may have used it as a prison.
In the beginning of the 19th century the Turks used the monasteries of Meteora as prisons and places of exile for punished clergy from Constantinople, but there is no record they stayed at the Rock of the Holy Spirit. In fact, no one knows if they were really ever prisons at all. It could have just been a place for ascetics to stay.
But why call it a prison? There must be something to that tradition. Perhaps there was a certain resemblance to the way of life here that there was in the Prison described by St. John.
It's all speculation, but a valid theory nonetheless.

Note:
This video was recorded after receiving an explicit written permission from the dept. of tourism in Greece.
There are no close up flights but rather the clips were shot by digitally zooming into the location.
Clips recorded during early hours of the day, very low traffic on the road, and prior to official visiting hours at nearby monasteries.
Pilot is a FAA certified drone operator

[Rash]

Wow! Great video..& loved the music..👌🏻