The Holy Monastery of Kalamiotissa

Imagine a rock rising sheer out of the Cretan Sea, like a spearhead driven into the sky. At 460 metres, where the wind cuts sharp and the gaze is lost in endless blue, a white monastery stands like the final word of a story that began thousands of years ago. This is the Holy Monastery of the Virgin Mary of Kalamiotissa, atop Mount Kalamos, at the eastern edge of Anafi — one of the most unusual pilgrimage sites in the Cyclades.

The rock that “frightened” a traveller

Kalamos is not simply a mountain. According to many accounts, it is the second-highest rock in the Mediterranean after Gibraltar, an immense mass of granite rising vertically above the sea. The 18th-century French traveller Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, who journeyed through the Aegean recording everything he encountered with scientific precision, did not hesitate to call it “the most terrifying rock in the world.” Today, the same grandeur that once terrified travellers of the past draws climbers from across Europe, who seek on its vertical walls one of the most demanding climbing experiences in the Aegean.

The myth behind the island’s name

Anafi, it is said, “appeared” (anefani) at the hand of Apollo. When the Argonauts, on their voyage home with the Golden Fleece, found themselves lost amid a storm and darkness, the god heard their prayer and suddenly raised an island from the waves, giving them shelter. It is no coincidence, then, that at precisely this spot, atop the island’s most striking rock, the ancients built a temple dedicated to Apollo Aigletes — the god of light who “revealed” salvation. Centuries later, Christian worship did not choose this same place by accident to honour the Virgin Mary.

Where the ancient temple meets the monastery

Climbing the path that begins at the Monastery of Zoodochos Pigi and leads to the summit of Kalamos, the visitor literally walks over layers of history. In the foundations and walls of the Monastery of Kalamiotissa, carved stones and architectural elements from the ancient sanctuary of Apollo can still be made out, built into the monastery’s structure — silent testimony that the sanctity of a place, whatever the name of the god who guards it, never fully fades. Walking among the dry-stone walls, with the wind whistling and the sea spreading out below in every shade of blue, you feel why this spot was chosen again and again as a place of prayer.

A pilgrimage that remains alive

The climb to Kalamiotissa is not a simple route for the people of Anafi — it is an act of devotion repeated every year, especially around the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary on 8 September, when locals and pilgrims climb the sheer rock to honour the Virgin at her height. It is a tradition that unites the physical trial of the ascent with the spiritual reward of the view and the silence at the summit — an experience that few places in the Cyclades can offer with such intensity.

“The most terrifying rock in the world.”Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, French traveller, 18th century

Atop Kalamos, amid wind, stone and light, Kalamiotissa is not merely another little church of the Cyclades. It is proof that on Anafi, the sacred was never built by chance — it “appeared,” just as the island itself did, out of humanity’s need to seek the light at the highest point it can reach.