The monastery “Holy Virgin Sumela” rises 1200 meters above sea stage.
The majestic constructing stands menacingly on the sting of the cliffs, its frescoes pale and distorted. The facade exhibits the deep traces of time and when the spires are enveloped by clouds, the monastery seems like an apparition.
Sumela rises 1200 meters above sea stage and is positioned in Altendere Park. Though it is just about 50 kilometers from the Black Sea metropolis of Trabzon, the monastery will not be overly fashionable.
How the “Holy Virgin Sumela” appeared is the topic of legends and outright myths.
One in every of them states that an icon of the Holy Virgin Mary, painted by the Apostle Luke himself, was lowered into the cave by two angels.
Someplace within the 4th century, two monks learn the omen and determined to discovered a monastery proper in entrance of this similar cave, and regularly an entire complicated sprung up there.
Within the coronary heart of the monastery is the so-called Rock Church, which is as if dug into the rocks. Over time, chapels, cells, frequent rooms, an aqueduct and others had been constructed round it.
All this has skilled a dizzying change of eras – from the collapse of the Roman Empire, by means of the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman rule, to Turkey‘s struggles for independence.
Among the frescoes are badly broken – in a single place Saint John has no hand, in one other Jesus is faceless, in a 3rd there are vandalized inscriptions on the frescoes.
Once more, myths say that due to some mystical energy, the Ottomans spared “Sumela” and left the monastery intact throughout their invasion.
The latter, nonetheless, is extra probably because of the location of the monastery complicated, which made the invaders not dangle it. It’s a undeniable fact that within the 18th century the monks had been calm sufficient for the monastery to color an enormous a part of its partitions with the frescoes which might be nonetheless seen as we speak.
The disaster for “Sumela” got here within the Twenties, when after the First World Conflict the monks left the monastery in panic.
Large migrations because of the army battle didn’t move the area and the monks fled to Greece, however not earlier than burying a big a part of the property in secret locations across the monastery.
After that, “Sumela” was attacked by vandals, deceived by the rumors of what untold riches the monastery hides. Valuables had been by no means discovered, however a major a part of the distinctive frescoes had been broken, the altars had been damaged, and the cells of the monks had been insulted.
In 1970, nonetheless, the Turkish Ministry of Tradition turned its consideration to Sumela and commenced the primary restoration program. Within the Nineteen Eighties, symbolically, on the Nice Mom of God, the monastery formally started to obtain pilgrims and vacationers once more.
The restoration works are nonetheless ongoing as a result of the frescoes are many and complicated. The one photographs which might be utterly spared are these of the Virgin Mary, as a result of she is taken into account a holy determine in Islam as properly.
The monastery might be reached from Trabzon by non-public transport or by one of many organized buses. Entrance is 20 euros, and “Sumela” is open for visits and prayers all yr spherical.
