Kaymaklı Monastery,Trabzon TURKEY.   

At the top of Boztepe hill three kilometers away from Trabzon stand the ruins of Kaymaklı Monastery.

The monastery was Armenian Apostolic and originally included a church, bell tower and a small chapel.

Nobody can say exactly when the monastery was founded but it is known that Armenians fled to the area to escape the Mongol invasions during the 13th and 14th centuries and that a religious community could be found on the site from the 15th century.

The Turks pillaged and destroyed the monastery in 1461 but during the 16th century it was rebuilt and became an important site for the production of religious manuscript.

The oldest building in the monastery is a chapel which dates from 1424 and was built by Hodja Stephanos Shemsedli. The site includes a fountain, a tower, the chapel and a monastic building.

Frescoes painted in the 17th and 18th centuries depict scenes from the bible and add decoration to the church. Kaymakli Monastery remained the seat of the Trezibond (ancient Trabzon) diocese until 1915 when the life of the monastery was disrupted by being used as a temporary camp for Armenians being deported to Syria.

When the Russian army invaded the area, the monks returned to the religious site and remained there until around 1923.

The monastery was later partially destroyed by fire. The church is now roofless and the bell tower no longer remains standing.

The monastery is too far to walk to from Trabzon so it is best to take a taxi. If time is short on your visit to Trabzon then Kaymaklı Monastery is one of the places you should definately put on your list of things to see.
 

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