Finding Prodromos Monastery
In the final part of our series on the area around Martiri Bridge, we investigate why it was built, and in doing so learn about a nearby abandoned monastery. We also take the drone for a spin, to get some more spectacular views of the surrounding countryside...
Above The Bridge
We shall begin our adventure on the road above Martiri Bridge, which we already blogged about, along with the spectacular gorge below it. Since publishing those articles, we are delighted to see that some people have explored the area themselves after reading our words. So this view will be familiar to at least a few of you. Here we are heading down to the bridge from Koili.
An Interesting Map
Now, once we had found the bridge, the question naturally popped up, why was it built? To find a possible answer, we turned to the National Library of Scotland. They have an online historical map viewer. It even has a side-by-side more, where you can compare the old map with a current one. In the picture above, I am comparing a Kitchener Map from the 1900s with a modern satellite image. It is plain to see that there were the ruins of something called Prodromos pretty much exactly where a path from the bridge would lead to. If you look on right hand image, you can see a faint zig-zag track about two centimetres to the right of the tip of the arrow. That is the track that leads down to the bridge.
So the next question is: What was Prodromos?
Distant Prodromos?
This view shows the route the path takes.
A quick bit of research (google) revealed only the following, with reference to Prodromos and Koili:
"There are also two ruined monasteries, Agios Georgios and Timios Prodromos."
We visited Agios Georgios a couple of months ago. Coincidentally, we found that when we were out looking for Martiri Bridge. It was reasonable to presume that the ruins of Prodromos referred to Prodromos Monastery. So we can assume the bridge was built for them.
Drone Scout
We took our drone with us for some of the visits to the area. It is very useful for scouting out the valley. This is the view downstream. At the bottom, we can see the path winding its way around the hill, but there are no sign of any ruins.
Drone Film
Here is some of the footage we shot. It contains spoilers as to the location of the monastery, so if you don't want to interrupt the blog narrative you can watch it later. I put it on the first page though, so that the casual viewer not yet engaged enough to read the whole six pages of this epic adventure, might see what's in store and have their curiousity piqued.