Mt. Athos is the eastern-most peninsula of Khalkidiki in northern Greece. It is an autonomous theocratic republic, currently inhabited by some 2600 monks.
It was during one of my first visits to this unique region, in 1982, when I found an abandoned photo studio in the hills overlooking the gigantic Panteleimon or Roussikon monastery. A handful of mostly octogenerian monks dwelled there at the time, leaving most of the surrounding buildings and structures prey to fires, earthquakes and time.
In a corner of the room stood an old wooden cupboard. With some effort I managed to open the door and found a 50 cm pile of broken glass negatives. Picking up pieces I saw body parts, faces and outdoor scenes. After removing a plank at the bottom of the pile I found what I had started hoping for: 100 intact glass negatives. I took them with me.
There were portraits of soldiers, of monks, of pilgrims and the occasional scene of daily monastic life on the holy mountain. The only dated photo showed French sailors from the 1917 Campagne de L’Orient. It must have been one of the last photos taken by the photographer. After the Russian revolution many monks from Panteleimon went back to Russia to fight the communists. They never returned.
Since the early 1990s hundreds of young monks have joined the community, bringing with them fresh energy and technology. One monastery now even has a project to collect historic photographic material about Mt Athos. This means the original negatives will soon return home.
Paul Robert
Paul Robert (1955) is a Dutch photo-journalist, based in Amsterdam. He works for several Dutch and international magazines, covering general interest travel stories.
