The world-renowned Panagia Sumela
Monastery in Trabzon, Turkey, saw thousands of visitors in just two days after
it fully reopened to the public for the first time in six years.
More than 5,000 tourists visited the
monastery on Sunday and Monday, May 1 and 2, despite the rainy weather and fog,
reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.
For centuries, the cliff-side
monastery in the Black Sea city served as the cradle of Pontian Hellenism.
After 88 years of banning access to the site, Turkey reopened it on August 15,
2010, and a new tradition of Patriarch Bartholomew celebrating the monastery’s
patronal feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos there began.
However, the monastery was closed for
restoration in September 2015, and the Patriarch was not permitted to serve
throughout the restoration process, which mostly addressed the stability of the
cliff.
A series of mini-inaugurations have
successively opened more sections of the monastery. It was opened up through
the first courtyard in May 2019, and in July 2020, 65% of the monastery was
opened to the public and the Divine Liturgy was celebrated again on Dormition
that year.
Turkish authorities say the
restoration of the monument is now 95% completed and that there will be no new
closures.
A scandal involving the monastery
erupted in February when Turkey shot a tourism advertisement with scenes of the
monastery being used as a night club.
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