Sümela Monastery & Altındere National Park (Trabzon)

Perched dizzyingly on a sheer vertical cliff face 300 meters above the evergreen valley of the Altındere stream in Maçka, Trabzon, Sümela Monastery (Panagia Soumela) is one of the most astonishing architectural triumphs in the Black Sea region. Founded in 386 AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Theodosius I by two Athenian monks, Barnabas and Sophronios, who discovered a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary in a mountain cave, the complex was continuously patronized by Byzantine emperors, Trebizond rulers, and Ottoman Sultans. Clinging miraculously to the granite precipice, the monastery comprises the central Rock Church carved into the natural cavern, five chapels, monastic student rooms, a library, sacred holy spring, and a monumental aqueduct anchored to the cliff wall. The interior and exterior surfaces of the Rock Church are covered in breathtaking multi-layered Byzantine frescoes illustrating the Life of Christ and the Virgin Mary with vivid pigments of lapis lazuli, ochre, and gold leaf that have endured centuries of mountain rain and alpine snow.