It’s a miracle! No, really, it’s pretty impressive
This is genuinely weird. This is the chapel of Saint Theodora in Vasta, Greece. It’s maybe a thousand years old – nobody’s sure – and it’s got seventeen large trees growing out of its walls and roof and there are no roots penetrating the inside.
According to the Orthodox Wiki (who knew there was an Orthodox Wiki?)
Many researchers have spent years studying this structure, even X-raying the walls, but have no explanation for the roots of the trees. In 2003, a geophysical report was presented at the 4th Symposium of Archaeometry in Greece. The results of this investigation proved that the roots followed the gaps existing inside the stone wall of the chapel creating repulsion stresses between the stones and thus reaching the ground.
Perhaps there’s an engineer among us who can explain what “repulsion stresses” are. Grok failed me. Well, I failed me…Grok did his best.
There’s a stream that runs under it. So I guess they just…pull sustenance up through the stones? Beats me.
Here’s a blog that has more pictures.
August 7, 2025 — 4:29 pm
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