Oct 29, 2026, 10:32 PM

https://www.fromoldbooks.org/EnglishIllustratedMagazine-1890/pages/536-monks-turning-capstan/

The Metamorphosis Monastery, or Meteora, in Thessely, Greece, is at the top of a giant pillar, so to get people up they’d lower a net on the end of a rope. Then the monks in the picture would turn the capstan to winch the visitors up to the monastery! Maybe today they have an electric winch - this was in 1890.

#Meteora #gimp #vintageEngraving

Insid a plain attic-style room with a wooden floor, five robed and barefoot monks are operating a capstan that pulls people up from below in a net on the end of a rope, so that they could ascend to the monastery.