Some 600,000 tourists have visited the historic Byzantine monastery of Sümela since it reopened in 2021 after 5 years of extensive restoration involving dozens of technicians, engineers and restorers. Built into the rock 300 meters above the Altindere Valley, in the Turkish province of Trabzon, this former Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Virgin Mary and built in the 4th century received some 154,000 tourists in 2021 after its reopening, and close to 340,000 in 2022, while in the first 6 months of 2023 it welcomed more than 104,000 visitors, according to the Trabzon Office of Culture and Tourism.
The historic Sümela Monastery is believed to have been originally built during the year 386 in the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius the Great, although the current structure that can be seen today is the result of a later extension to the monastery in the thirteenth century, reigning the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III. Candidate to be recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, the monastery has functioned as a museum since 1922 and is one of the main tourist attractions in the Black Sea region of Turkey, although since 2010 it has hosted every year a Christian religious ceremony of the Greek Orthodox community.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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