Ever since the time of Saint Anthony, monks have been willing to give up their brocade attire, leather couch or pear soufflé before they gave up a good view. A quick survey of the monasteries around the world proves this.

The windows of the oldest one, established by Saint Anthony in Egypt, frame landscapes of the Eastern Desert. In Europe, from the Iberian Peninsula to Halkidiki, God's servants enjoy stunning views. The Carmelite Convent is built on a strategically located hill with a 360-degree panorama over Lisbon. The Orthodox complex on Mount Athos is a natural crow's-nest to the Aegean Sea and 90 miles to the west, in Meteora, hermits willingly get to grips with rock climbing and abseiling in exchange for having a view over the surreal area near Kalambaka.

But one of the most dramatically located monasteries of them all is the Byzantine Sumela in the evergreen hills by Trabzon in eastern Turkey.

Built high on the rocks overhanging the former Georgian capital, it is encircled by soil-scented paths among dark pines and stunningly steep slopes, which drop nearly 300 metres down to the Altındere Valley. About 30 kilometres to the north, the Kaçkar Mountains, where the monastery is perched, collapse into the Black Sea and the breeze comes in waves to alternate the aroma of the coniferous trees. Not only would Saint Anthony approve of the magnificent view but he would feel slightly envious as well.

Sumela is the most important and best-preserved Byzantine monastery from the dozens in this area established between the fifth and the seventh centuries. It was built on the site of an early Christian shrine which existed until 385AD.

At about the same time the Athenian Saint Barnabas, probably attracted by the scenery, arrived there. High up in the mountain he found a wooden icon of the Virgin Mary and declared it was the work of Apostle Luke. He kept it in a cave in the area and because so many worshippers began flocking to see it, a monastery was built on this site in the sixth century.

Reconstructed many times in subsequent centuries, it has never failed to attract pilgrims with its panorama. The Komnenos Dynasty, that after the fall of Constantinople in 1204 ruled a small kingdom with Trabzon, then known as Trebizond, as its capital until 1461, chose the monastery as its coronation venue.

It reached its present form in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and remained secure throughout the Ottoman Empire. Although the country's official religion was Islam, the Orthodox monks retained their religious autonomy and were also granted administrative independence, including tax benefits.



The end of the flourishing spiritual life in the monastery came in 1923, when Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, upon becoming separate secular states, agreed to exchange sections of their population on ethnic principles. The Greek monks of Sumela and the other Pontic monasteries emigrated, taking a large part of the treasures amassed over the centuries.

Abandoned, Sumela began to fall apart. The Turkish authorities only initiated its restoration in 1996.

But despite the destructive effect of natural forces and people, the complex of monastic cells, halls, a refectory and several chapels has been preserved almost intact.



Its focal point is the rock church chiselled out in the cave, a rare example of a Christian temple decorated both on the inside and outside. The frescos, often in several layers and different styles, cover every inch of its walls.

Scribblers from different ages and nationalities have left their ugly marks on the religious images. Generally speaking, they fall into two groups. The first constitutes graffiti by people who have wanted to leave an indelible sign of their visit: from Greek pilgrims several centuries ago to modern American tourists.

Far more repulsive, however, is the damage done by the Christian iconoclasts and Turkish secular and religious enemies of expressing Orthodox beliefs through images of people.

Their hands have left scratches on all frescoes they could reach, their main objective apparently being to gouge the eyes of the saints on the walls.



This is why the once magnificent church of Sumela now makes you feel as if you are in a Gothic nightmare. Apart from the Virgin Mary and the apostles who hover high above on the exterior drum of the dome, and are painted in a manner rather different from traditional iconography, the walls display a succession of ghostly, blinded figures.



From the monks' perspective, they have suffered the severest of punishments: they are devoid of the chance to enjoy the view. Those poor men in Sumela have lost something remarkable – the infinite dark green fields made by the tops of the pine trees which gently unfold towards the rough waters of the Black Sea. A view for which Saint Anthony would gladly spend another life as a hermit.

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