ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of silence in the topography of Mount Athos, a semi-independent peninsula in northeastern Greece and a world heritage UNESCO monument since 1988. Parts and wholes are organically interrelated through an atmosphere of stillness that is intentionally preserved, artistically and architecturally orchestrated in the cases of the monastic complexes, and always aiming to reflect the transformative qualities of hesychasm. Their temporality greatly influences the understanding of silence in the monastery as part of a condition of stillness also informed by the rhythm of their repetitive happening. In the context of phenomenal spatiality, the cave and the Athonite peninsula, the cell and the monastery, the stasidi and the katholikon are mutually interrelated in a hesychast transformative environment that allows to redefine the role of silence through its prayerful connotations.
