Mount Athos

mountain in northern Greece, site of a semiautonomous republic of Greek Orthodox monks inhabiting 20 monasteries and dependencies (skítes), some of which are larger than the parent monasteries. It occupies the easternmost of the three promontories of the Chalcidice (Khalkidhikí) Peninsula, which projects from Macedonia region into the Aegean Sea. The Aktí promontory, 30 miles (50 km) long and 6.5 miles (10.5 km) wide at its broadest point, has a mountainous spine thickly wooded on the north and culminating in the marble peak of Athos (6,670 feet [2,033 metres]), which rises abruptly from the sea at the southern tip. The capital and only town of the subdivision is Kariaí (Karyaes). Mount Athos was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.

The mountain was discussed by Homer in the Iliad. In the 5th century bc the Persian king Xerxes I, to avoid taking his fleet around the treacherous cape, cut a 1.5-mile- (2.4-km-) long canal through Aktí’s neck, traces of which are still visible. Although hermits inhabited Athos before ad 850, organized monastic life began in 963, when St. Athanasius the Athonite, with the help of his Byzantine imperial patron, Nicephorus II Phocas, founded the first monastery, the Great Laura. Despite objections by the hermits to organized community monasticism, the rule of St. Athanasius was imposed on them by the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimisces, who granted Athos its first charter (Typikon). A traditional prohibition bars women and female animals from the Holy Mountain. Several more monasteries were built in the 11th century. With the endowment of monasteries by Russia and other Slavic countries, the peninsula took on an almost pan-Orthodox character. By 1400, the number of monasteries had reached 40 (half of which survive); the last to be built was Stavronikita, which was reconstructed in the 16th century (it has been damaged several times by fire).

In the 15th century some of the monasteries abandoned the strict regimen of the community under the rule of an abbot for a more liberal system in which monks could possess personal property and be governed by two annually elected trustees (epitropoi).

When the Turks captured Thessaloníki (Salonika) in 1430, the monks submitted to Turkish rule, a relation that led to the rapid decline and impoverishment of the monasteries and increased adoption of the more liberal system of governance. In reaction, the first skítes, or ascetic settlements, were founded in the 16th century, grouped around a common church as dependencies of the monasteries. In 1783 the patriarch Gabriel IV introduced successful reforms with a new charter. The Athos community suffered greatly from Turkish depredations during the War of Greek Independence (1821–29), when entire libraries were burned. By contrast, the patronage of the tsars in the 19th century brought about the expansion of the Russian monasteries and their properties.

The community’s present constitution dates from 1924 and is guaranteed by the Greek constitution of 1975. The Greek government is represented by a governor (dioikitís) appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to underline the mountain’s semiautonomy, but actual administration is in the hands of the Holy Council (Ierá Sýnaxis), comprising one representative of each of the monasteries. Executive power is vested in the Epistasia, composed of four representatives by annual rotation. About half of the monasteries are conservative, with much stricter rules on discipline and fasting. Most of the monasteries hug the coast and consist of a quadrangle of buildings enclosing a church. The churches contain some of the most important examples of Byzantine art, icons, and treasures. The surviving libraries hold a vast number of classical and medieval manuscripts, most of which have been cataloged. Area 130 square miles (336 square km). Pop. (2001) 2,262.