Driving back from Delphi and Arahova, is the road to Osios Loukas monastery well marked?
I understand it is south of the main highway, on the road towards Distomo?

Anyone familiar with this?

Thanks.

Rick in Maryland

In 2000 or 2001, I attempted to stop off at Osios Loukas while driving TO Delphi, from Athens.

Couldn't easily find it and gave up, as I wanted to be in Arahova by late afternoon.

If I'd been willing to spend another
30 minutes driving around, I think I may have found it.

It was not what I'd call "well marked" !

Thanks, Tom. Anyone else have any experiences or advice on this?

Did anyone in a private vehicle actually find it?

Rick

Rick,
about 4-5 yrs ago on the Fodor's Board, there was a poster named "Paolo" (sp?) from Brazil, I think. Unfortunately Paolo has not been an active poster for the last few years.

He was quite knowledgeable about Greece, and in fact I decided to attempt visiting Osios Loukas based on his posted narratives.

Don't know if Fodor's archives that far back, but might be worth a few mintes effort.

we stopped there on our way to delphi in 1998. honestly, i couldn't see what the big deal was.

i'm not a major fan of byzantine churches, and this one (to me) looked like the ones we'd seen on crete and in athens.

the only high point was the 1,000-year-old mummy of ol' luke himself. he was just lying there, looking very wrinkled.

of course, my trip was an art history study abroad thing so we HAD to stop. good thing our bus driver knew where he was going because not only is OL way off the beaten path, but you have to walk down a fairly longish beaten path to even reach the monastery.

plus, i was anxious to get to delphi and was quite annoyed at having to stop at all... much less at a byzantine monastery. blech.

Gracious, that's not much of an endorsement for the monastery--how about the icons there--I just finished taking an icon course and he imagined that to be a treasure trove--any recollections? Thanks.

byzantine art is not the most popular one .
even so, Osios Loukas is not an ordinary church, it's supposed to have some of the finest mosaics - the interior is gloriously covered with golden mosaics, although i found it a bit dark . there is also a beautiful garden outside . if you are interested in monuments of that type visit the monastery at Daphni (or Dafni) in western Athens .

Thanks folks --- some others had told me that of the 2 (Dafni or Ossios Lukas) they preferred Dafni (just outside Athens). Perhaps I will choose Dafni since it seems to have its own very nice features and is certainly easier.

I am not well versed on Byzantine art or ikonography, but did want to visit at least one fine example.

I think Dafni will be my choice.

Thanks!

Rick