Category:Antique water storage barrel at Moni Varlaam (Meteora)

English: This is not a wine barrel, as sometimes incorrectly labeled by tourists. With a capacity of 1200 litre, it would be a strange place for so many tons of wine, which could only be consumed by a small, isolated number of perpetually drunken monks. The monastery was only opened to the public, and an access passage constructed, in the 20th century. If a vinyard or a winery had been in existence there, as it had been in at least one other monastery, the facilities would have been left below; otherwise, one would have to imagine the monks winching tons of wine up and down the cliffs. The barrel is the surviving one of three original tanks designed to store rain water for consumption and irrigation. The water must have been captured by the terrace. There was no other source of water on the rock.