New Athos Monastery: a remarkable place in Abkhazia

The Orthodox New Athos monastery (by the way, its another name sounds like the Simon-Kananitsky monastery) has a relatively small history. In August, 1875, the monks of the monastery, bearing the name of St. Panteleimon and located on Mount Athos (Greece) visited Abkhazia in order to find a good place for the construction of a new monastery. A year before, they had turned to Prince Mikhail Romanovich, the Caucasian governor, with a request to provide them with land for the construction of a new monastic monastery. More agreement was given, and only a couple of years later, in 1876, on the deserted Black Sea coast, the lower part of the monastery was erected.

Eight years later, monks began to erect a monastery complex on the mountain. They had to work extraordinarily hard - in order to clear the area under the New Athos Monastery, it was necessary first to cut off part of Athos and, accordingly, to take out many tens of tons of land and rocks. In addition, the task was seriously complicated by the fact that the place chosen for the monastery was on a significant elevation and had absolutely no access roads.

However, with God's help, this enormous volume of almost hard labor was completed in 12 years, so that in 1896 the monastery was ready. Now the brothers decided to proceed, of course, to the sanctification of the object and the relocation to a new abode.

By the way, the New Athos Monastery, Abkhazia for the construction of which was given in due time by good, was built near the ancient temple of Simon the Canaanite, one of the twelve holy apostles of Jesus. Here, the relics of the saint rest. Nearby there is another remarkable place, namely, a cave in which, according to a religious legend, Kananit prayed in seclusion. In 1884 this place was sanctified by holy water and placed in it an icon of St. Simon and Andrew (another apostle). And the monastery itself can be proud of the presence in its walls of such a relic as a miraculous cross, which contains a particle of the life-giving tree from the Lord's Cross.

Another New Athos monastery is also famous for the fact that in its construction in 1888, the Emperor Alexander III himself took part . He also presented the monasteries and musical chimes that can be seen on the highest tower of the building, as well as a power station and a locomotive.

Under the monastery bell tower is the former refectory - its walls are painted with beautiful frescoes by the brothers Olovyannikov, known in those days by the Volga masters.

The buildings of the monastery form a quadrangle, in the center of which stands the Panteleimon Cathedral in a new Byzantine style, crowned with five domes. The building was erected from 1888 to 1900.

Wall paintings that adorn the cathedral from the inside were painted by Palekh masters (Vladimir province) together with a group of artists from Moscow. This painting is remarkable because it is one of the most recent monuments of the icon painting school of the Russian Church. By the way, Panteleimonovsky Cathedral is the largest religious building on the territory of Abkhazia - at the same time it can accommodate about 3 thousand people. In addition to the cathedral, the monastery of New Athos has five other temples.

The cloister experienced its flourishing until 1924, when the communist government decided to close it because of "counterrevolutionary agitation." Since then, the complex has been used for the most soulless purposes - warehouses, a tourist base, a hospital, and a local history museum were equipped here. And only in 1994 began the revival of the beautiful abode.

To date, the New Athos Monastery has become a true spiritual center of the whole Caucasus. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists come here every year. Until now, you can see traces of the former power of the monastery - around it still flourish fruit gardens, bring a rather rich harvest and vineyards, planted by the brotherhood a long time ago.