"There Is The Monastery
Of Trooditissa!" Exclaimed Our Guide.
About 200 feet above our level,
snugly nested among splendid walnut-trees in the dark angle of the
mountains, were the grey and brown gables, half concealed by the rich
foliage of plane-trees, walnuts, mulberry, and other varieties.
About half a mile from this point of view the mules scrambled up one of
the worst portions of the route, and we arrived at a clear and cold
spring issuing suddenly from the rocks through a stone spout, protected
by an arch of masonry: this was received in a rude wooden trough formed
from the trunk of a hollowed pine, and overflowed across the path to
water some terraced gardens immediately below. A walnut and a fig-tree
intermingled their branches above the arch, and formed an agreeable
shade to shelter weary travellers, who might sit by the welcome spring
after toiling up the rough mountain side. About eighty yards beyond, by
a level path, we reached the widest-spreading walnut-tree that I have
ever seen; the new foliage was soft and uninjured by the wind, producing
a dense shade over an area sufficient for numerous tents. This
magnificent specimen of vegetation grew upon the edge of an abrupt
descent, perpendicular to a series of gardens, all terraced out to a
depth of about 150 feet, to the bottom of a narrow gorge; thus one-half
of the branches overhung the steep, while the other half shaded a
portion of the monastery courtyard.
We halted and dismounted beneath this grand old tree, where the
picturesque but not clean old monk, with some of his ecclesiastics, were
ready to meet us with a courteous welcome.
CHAPTER XII.
THE MONASTERY OF TROODITISSA.
The monastery of Trooditissa had no architectural pretensions; it looked
like a family of English barns that had been crossed with a Swiss
chalet. The roofs of six separate buildings of considerable dimensions
were arranged to form a quadrangle, which included the chapel, a long
building at right angles with the quadrangle, which had an upper balcony
beneath the roof, so as to form a covered protection to a similar
arrangement below, and an indescribable building which was used by the
monks as their store for winter provisions. The staircases were outside,
as in Switzerland, and entered upon the open-air landings or balconies;
these were obscure galleries, from which doors led to each separate
apartment, occupied by the monks and fleas. The obscurity may appear
strange, as the balconies were on the outside, but the eaves of the roof
at an angle of about 48 degrees projected some feet as a protection from
the winter's snow, and occasioned a darkness added to the gloom of
blueish grey gneiss which formed the walls and the deep brownish red of
the tiled roof.
The great walnut-tree overshadowed a portion of the mule stables that
formed a continuation of the building, and faced the exterior courtyard,
which was inclosed upon two sides of the square, in the centre of which
was an arched entrance to the inner court.
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