Sumela Monastery

Sumela Monastery is located in a valley south of the Turkish town of Trabzon.
It was founded in 386 AD by two Greek Orthodox monks and has been destroyed and rebuilt several times since then.

In 1923 the monastery was abandoned because the Greek population was forced out by the Turks. Thereupon the monastery was plundered and finally burned down in 1930.

In 2012 the Turkish government decided to rebuild the monastery.
Since then it has mainly been a tourist attraction.

In 2015 it had to be closed to the public for safety reasons due to increasing rockfalls.
Since then work has been going on to secure the rocks.