Since its establishment in the 4th century AD by some of the earliest Christian followers along the Black Sea coast, the Sümela Monastery has witnessed the evolution from the Roman Empire to the Byzantine era, the rise of the Ottomans, Turkey’s struggle for independence after World War I, decades of neglect and destruction, and a miraculous revival in modern times.
The tumultuous history of Sümela makes it seem like a location created by artificial intelligence or computer graphics. In reality, the chapel, courtyard, library, residential quarters, bell tower, aqueduct, and a sacred spring are nestled precariously on a rocky outcrop nearly 300 meters above a lush river valley in the Pontic Alps.
Every day, thousands of visitors, including religious pilgrims, are drawn to the splendor of the frescoes and early Christian architecture along the cobblestone path to the monastery.
Sümela Monastery is located nearly 300m above the valley below.
Currently, this site is a national museum and no longer belongs to a religious community.
The monastery has undergone several years of restoration to ensure it is a safe place for tourism and to minimize damage from fires, treasure hunters, vandals, and unruly visitors.
“We always have issues with falling rocks. To avoid damaging the structures and harming visitors, we have hired climbers to secure the cliffs,” said Levent Alniak, the museum and historical site manager of Trabzon Province.
Suspended mid-air, climbers use steel cables and large metal stakes to secure mesh and barriers to the towering cliffs above the monastery.
The ongoing restoration process has uncovered unexpected treasures, such as a secret tunnel leading to a previously undiscovered chapel that may have been used as a lookout point to protect the monastery.
Inside the small church, archaeologists have found impressive frescoes depicting heaven and hell, life and death.
The Historical and Legendary Origins of Sümela
According to legend, Sümela dates back to 386 AD and is a miraculous discovery by Greek monks Barnabas and Sophronios.
They were drawn to this remote land by a statue of the Virgin Mary, hidden in the Pontic Alps.
The monks discovered this sacred relic (a portrait of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, which they named Panagia Soumela) in a cave that later became known as the Rock Church.
Sümela has been cherished by both Christian and Muslim pilgrims and was a Greek Orthodox monastery until the early 20th century.
Many Greeks living in the Pontic Alps and the nearby Black Sea coast chose to relocate to Greece, including the monks of Sümela Monastery.
Fearing robbery during their journey to Greece, the monks buried the monastery’s treasures at secret locations in the Altindere Valley, hoping to recover them at some point in the future.
The abandoned monastery attracted treasure hunters seeking these valuable artifacts. Panagia Soumela was eventually restored by the monks and is now housed within the Nea Sümela Monastery in northern Greece.
However, some relics have been smuggled out of Turkey and are now in museums or private collections around the world.
By the 1970s, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism had initiated the first efforts to preserve and restore Sümela as a national treasure.
