Simonopetra Damaged in Athos Earthquake

Simonopetra Monastery

KARYES — The Holy Monastery of Simonopetra suffered damage in the earthquake that recently struck Mount Athos, according to Greek media sources.

A monk of Simonopetra told Thestival: “We were shaken a lot! At the monastery, the chimney fell due to the earthquake, the chandelier in the dining hall fell, plaster has come off the walls. There is quite a bit of damage."

“It was the strongest earthquake we’ve felt,” another monk said. "Earthquakes have been happening constantly for the past year, but this one was the most alarming, and it keeps triggering aftershocks. It won’t stop, and we’re all on high alert.”

Kostas Papazachos, a seismologist, warned that there may be more such activity to come. Speaking of the fault line that runs under the Holy Mountain, he said:

It’s located in the area of the Holy Monasteries of Xenophontos and Dochiariou, where we’ve had ongoing seismic activity for many months, and today it produced a 5.3 magnitude quake. Several aftershocks have already occurred in a sequence, greatly disturbing the monasteries.

Fortunately, there have not been any very serious consequences so far. Significant measures have already been taken to reinforce the buildings, and up to now, nothing too critical has happened.

What is concerning is that even though the fault is not very large, it has been persistently active for months. And that’s the problem. The possibility of another, stronger earthquake cannot be ruled out, and the most troubling thing is that this activity hasn’t stopped. Aftershocks of 4.0 and 3.5 magnitude are already occurring and will continue over the next hours and days.

The web portal Orthodox Christianity reports that a special team visited the monasteries of Dochiariou, Xenophontos, and St. Panteleimon’s as well as Simonopetra. They found serious damage to each structure.

However, they emphasized that the structural integrity of the monasteries have not been compromised.

Professor Efthymios Lekkas, president of the Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, says that this “strange phenomenon” has been going on for over a year now.

Lekkas notes that the traditional building methods used to construct these ancient monasteries make them highly resistant to seismic activity.

More than seventy aftershocks have been recorded since the quake on Saturday.

Read also