Virgin Mary Monastery

The Virgin Mary Monastery (Turkish: Meryem Ana Manastırı) is a ruined monastery in the Giresun Province of Turkey.[1][2] Built into a cave in the Pontic Mountains, the monastery sits high above ground, up a steep flight of stairs. The four-story building contains a dining room, church, rooms for the monks, and a classroom.[3]

Virgin Mary Monastery
Meryem Ana Manastırı
Virgin Mary Monastery is located in Turkey
Virgin Mary Monastery
Location within Turkey
Monastery information
OrderGreek Orthodox
Established2nd century
Disestablished1940s
Architecture
StatusRuins
Functional statusTourist destination
Site
LocationŞebinkarahisar District, Giresun, Turkey
Coordinates40.2765463°N 38.5054385°E / 40.2765463; 38.5054385
Visible remainsFour stories; 32 rooms
Public accessYes

History

The Virgin Mary Monastery dates back to at least the Byzantine period.[4] It resembles the famous Sumela Monastery, which Turkish sources estimate was completed in the late 4th century.[5][6] Sumela is also a former Greek Orthodox monastery built into a cliff.

Hulusi Güleç, the director of culture and tourism in Giresun, says the monastery was first used during Roman occupation of Anatolia. According to him, early Christians secretly practiced within the monastery during the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.[7]

Virgin Mary Monastery lies in the borders of Şebinkarahisar District, a subdivision of Giresun Province. In the 1880s, the area around Şebinkarahisar had a little over 8,000 Pontian Greeks.[8] Every year between the 26th and 28th of August, Greeks from nearby visited the monastery to celebrate and worship.[1]

However, the Greek/Turkish population exchange severely decreased the Pontian Greek presence in the region. The 1939 Erzincan earthquake made the abandoned monastery inaccessible,[9] after which it fell into great disrepair.[3]

Restoration and tourism

In the early 2010s, the four-story monastery underwent restoration work. This was an effort to make the monastery into a tourist attraction, especially while Sumela Monastery, another tourist draw, was closed for repairs. [10]

Both Anadolu Agency, a state-run Turkish news source, and an independently run paper report that the monastery has recently attracted the Pontian Greek diaspora.[7][11] Forty residents of Kavala, Greece, descendants of Pontians forced out of Şebinkarahisar during the population exchange, visited Virgin Mary Monastery in 2015.[7]

References
  1. "Meryemana Monastery (Ruins)". Giresun Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate (in Turkish). Giresun Province. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  2. Sinclair, Thomas Alan (December 31, 1989). Eastern Turkey : an architectural and archaeological survey. Vol. II. London: Pindar Press. p. 340. ISBN 1904597734. Retrieved 18 August 2020. ...facing the great rock of Şebinkarahisar, is the small Greek monastery known as Meryemana.
  3. Kokkinidis, Tasos (July 21, 2017). "Rock-Carved Greek Orthodox Monastery in Turkey Opens for Tourists". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  4. "Meryemana Manastırı". Şebinkarahisar Kaymakamlığı (in Turkish). Government of Şebinkarahisar, Giresun. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  5. Sümela Monastery (Archived from September 29, 2007). Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
  6. The Heritage of Eastern Turkey: From Earliest Settlements to Islam. 2006. ISBN 9781876832056.
  7. Yetgin, Gültekin; Mutlu, Gülsen (July 23, 2015). "Meryem Ana Manastırı'na Yunanlı ziyareti". Anadolu Agency (in Turkish). Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  8. Kemal Karpat (1985), Ottoman Population, 1830-1914, Demographic and Social Characteristics, The University of Wisconsin Press, p. 136-137
  9. Talha, Mehmet (September 2, 2015). "Giresun's historic Şebinkarahisar comes alive with the Virgin Mary Monastery". Giresun Blog (in Turkish). Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  10. Anadolu Agency (July 19, 2017). "Historic rock-carved Virgin Mary Monastery awaits tourists in Giresun". Hurriyet Daily News. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
  11. Smith, John (July 11, 2018). "Restored Monastery Draws Tourists Exploring Pontic Greek Heritage". Greek Reporter. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
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