Why do people travel to Mount Athos in Greece? And is there a connection between Princeton and Mount Athos? We believe there is and it is this belief that led us to launch a multi-year project, Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy, a campus collaborative effort supported by the art and archaeology department, the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, PIIRS, and several international grants.
Mount Athos is a remote peninsula in northeastern Greece governed by monks. Entrance is limited for men and prohibited to women. Yet, Princeton houses remarkable materials connected to Mount Athos such as Byzantine and post-Byzantine manuscripts, engravings, watercolors, photographic prints, lantern slides, and reels of film. This is because Princeton students and faculty have been drawn to Mount Athos time and again, bringing back with them or acquiring these collections. Their histories have not been told, in some cases because the collections have been forgotten or ignored, and in others because the materials are not accessible, as they have not been fully cataloged, digitized, and researched yet.
We are particularly interested in learning more about what draws travelers to Mount Athos. If you are a Princeton alumnus and have traveled to Mount Athos, we want to hear from you! We plan to have a small forum during 2026 Reunions and invite alumni to share and discuss why they were motivated to visit Mount Athos, what their experiences were like, and how it may or may not have met their expectations. In order to plan this event, we are appealing to alumni to respond to a few prompts about your experiences, which you can either submit to have appear on our website, or just share with event organizers: https://athoslegacy.project.princeton.edu/alumni-submissions/
Thank you!
Julia Gearhart, director, visual resources, Department of Art and Archaeology
Maria Alessia Rossi, art history specialist, The Index of Medieval Art
Why do people travel to Mount Athos in Greece? And is there a connection between Princeton and Mount Athos? We believe there is and it is this belief that led us to launch a multi-year project, Connecting Histories: The Princeton and Mount Athos Legacy, a campus collaborative effort supported by the art and archaeology department, the Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, PIIRS, and several international grants.
Mount Athos is a remote peninsula in northeastern Greece governed by monks. Entrance is limited for men and prohibited to women. Yet, Princeton houses remarkable materials connected to Mount Athos such as Byzantine and post-Byzantine manuscripts, engravings, watercolors, photographic prints, lantern slides, and reels of film. This is because Princeton students and faculty have been drawn to Mount Athos time and again, bringing back with them or acquiring these collections. Their histories have not been told, in some cases because the collections have been forgotten or ignored, and in others because the materials are not accessible, as they have not been fully cataloged, digitized, and researched yet.
We are particularly interested in learning more about what draws travelers to Mount Athos. If you are a Princeton alumnus and have traveled to Mount Athos, we want to hear from you! We plan to have a small forum during 2026 Reunions and invite alumni to share and discuss why they were motivated to visit Mount Athos, what their experiences were like, and how it may or may not have met their expectations. In order to plan this event, we are appealing to alumni to respond to a few prompts about your experiences, which you can either submit to have appear on our website, or just share with event organizers: https://athoslegacy.project.princeton.edu/alumni-submissions/
Thank you!
Julia Gearhart, director, visual resources, Department of Art and Archaeology
Maria Alessia Rossi, art history specialist, The Index of Medieval Art