Kaymaklı Monastery: An Armenian Apostolic Monastery in Trabzon, Türkiye
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.3
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Turkey
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Armenian, Byzantine, Ottoman
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Monastery
On this page14 sections
History
Kaymaklı Monastery is a ruined Armenian Apostolic monastery in Trabzon, Türkiye, founded by Armenians in the early fifteenth century as the religious center of the city’s Armenian community. Formerly known as Trebizond, Trabzon had an Armenian population by at least the seventh century, and refugees from Ani and other regions strengthened that community during the Mongol invasions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The city became a seat of Armenian Apostolic bishops from the fourteenth century, while further arrivals in the early fifteenth century helped support the expansion of Armenian churches and the foundation of Kaymaklı.
Foundation in the Fifteenth Century
The monastery, also called the Monastery of the All-Saviour, occupied a site that had previously contained a Greek monastery. Parts of that earlier complex were incorporated into the Armenian foundation. A monastery at Kaymaklı is associated with the eleventh century in later tradition, but that earlier date cannot be demonstrated. The pre-existing monastery may have been entrusted to the Armenians by Alexios IV, emperor of Trebizond from 1417 to 1429.
The Armenian traveler Minas Bzhshkean attributed the foundation to Hodja Stepanos Shemsedli, a prominent local patron active between 1421 and 1424. An inscription dated 1423 or 1424 states that Shemsedli built the church for his descendants and his wife, Melik Hatun. A second inscription, traditionally read as dating from 1622 but more recently interpreted as 1421, places the small chapel within the same foundation period.
Restoration and Religious Use
The monastery was reportedly destroyed or pillaged in 1461 and restored during the sixteenth century. It later became a center for the production of Armenian manuscripts. The complex was formerly called Yeşil Manastır, meaning Green Monastery. Tradition connects its later Turkish name, Kaymaklı, with Sultan Murad III, who ruled from 1574 to 1594. According to that tradition, the sultan ate a meal consisting only of dairy products at the monastery, confirmed its possession of its lands, and gave the site a name referring to kaymak, a thick cream product.
An inscription associated with the large southern monastic building names Surat Hatun, Hodjikin, and Masya Hatun as donors and gives the date 1688. The surviving fabric of that building, however, dates principally from the nineteenth century. By 1915, Kaymaklı was the seat of the Trebizond diocese of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Armenian ecclesiastical institution responsible for the Armenian community of the Ottoman capital and associated dioceses. The city’s Armenian community then numbered approximately 30,000 people.
Closure and Later Changes
During the massacres and deportations of 1915, the monastery was closed and used as a transit or distribution camp for Armenians deported to Syria. After Russian forces captured Trabzon in April 1916, Armenian monks temporarily returned and may have remained until 1923.
When Talbot Rice visited in 1929, the church roof had collapsed and rain was reaching the wall paintings. Roof timbers were renewed in 1961 so that the church could serve as a hay barn, but that replacement roof later failed under exposure to the weather. The former monastic grounds subsequently became an agricultural holding. The site is now unused and protected as a building in Trabzon, without substantial conservation or visitor-presentation measures.
Remains
Kaymaklı occupied a terrace measuring approximately 30 by 40 to 45 metres, enclosed by an outer wall about four metres high. The northern and eastern sides descend steeply toward the Değirmendere Valley, and the complex overlooks the valley of the ancient river Pyxites. The main church stood within a group that also included a small chapel at the southeast corner, a bell tower to the northwest, a western zhamatun or shamatun, a fountain known as the Milk Fountain, and a large arcaded monastic building along the southern side.
Main Church
Structure and Masonry
The main church is a plain rectangular building with a single nave and a barrel vault. Its eastern wall projects into an apse that is pentagonal on the outside and semicircular within. A rectangular doorway in the center of the west wall is flanked by two smaller round-arched entrances, and another entrance opens through the south wall. Several church windows and the lateral western entrances have been blocked with stonework, while the two principal entrances are barricaded with wooden doors. The interior has been largely cleared, and the church is now covered by a provisional corrugated-metal roof.
The apse is probably the oldest part of the church and may derive from the earlier Greek monastery, probably dating from the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Carefully smoothed blocks form alternating narrow and wide courses, a masonry pattern unlike the rest of the complex and unlike the Armenian architectural forms known at the site. Two narrow yellowish stone bands divide the gray masonry horizontally, while each of the five outer faces has a light-colored ashlar block near its upper section. The apse measures approximately 6.8 metres across externally and is comparable in form and size to the main apse of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon.
Several khachkars, Armenian carved stones marked by a central cross and intricate ornamental relief, were reused in the church’s south wall. Another reused khachkar forms part of the small chapel’s exterior. These stones may predate the walls in which they were incorporated.
Wall Paintings
Paintings formerly covered all the walls of the main church. Surviving areas remain on the west wall, on the adjoining northern wall as far as the first pilaster, and in the apse. The apse preserves two, possibly three, layers of painted plaster. The nave had two layers on the south side and one layer elsewhere. Their date remains uncertain. They have been proposed as fifteenth-century paintings, probably made after the western zhamatun was added, and have also been dated to the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries. An inscription that can no longer be read once attributed the paintings to a person named Jacob rather than to Hodja Stepanos Shemsedli. Their style may place them later than the church’s completion in 1424.
The interior west wall contains a three-part Last Judgment. In the upper register, the Twelve Apostles sit on high-backed wooden chairs on either side of a window. A central figure of Christ may have been lost when the window was enlarged, leaving two archangels. In 1979, four apostles remained partly visible on the northern side, including Paul and Peter.
The middle register presents the preparation of Christ’s heavenly throne, known as the Hetoimasia, a Christian theme showing the prepared but empty throne associated with the Last Judgment. An empty chair covered by a formerly black, now faded cloth stands beneath a cross and probably a canopy, with an open Gospel book resting on it. A red stream of fire issues from another book beneath the throne and runs toward the northern side door. Adam and Eve appear beside the throne, accompanied by additional figures, groups of the chosen, animals, and a possible representation of Christ.
The lower register is divided by the three entrances. On the left, the chosen enter Paradise among dense trees through a narrow domed building with a high archway. Dismas, wearing a loincloth and carrying a wooden cross, leads them. On the right, souls are weighed at the Last Judgment while angels hold scales and spears. One scene shows an angel impaling a devil.
The western third of the northern wall depicts the stoning of the martyr Stephen. Stephen kneels with his face raised and hands joined in prayer as his accusers throw stones and press toward him. One appears to kick him. Mountains rise behind the scene, while a slender figure of Christ bends into the upper-right corner. The upper right portion of the wall once showed the Crucifixion, with Mary and a mourning group behind Christ, followed by Mary Magdalene and a male figure. The adjacent Resurrection scene showed Christ emerging from the tomb. A figure of Saint Gregory may have appeared below, reflecting the tradition that he brought Christianity to Armenia around AD 300.
Chapel and Bell Tower
Southeastern Chapel
The small chapel stands at the southeast corner near a modern dwelling. It consists of a single room with a gabled roof, an interior semicircular apse, a small window above the west entrance, and a semicircular opening in the apse. Its interior measures approximately 2.0 by 1.7 metres. Roughly fitted stone blocks form the walls in approximately horizontal courses. The roof slabs have disappeared, although mortar bedding and several projecting eaves stones remain. A long inscription above the doorway has been read as dating either from 1421 or from 1622. The chapel once contained paintings that were apparently somewhat older than those in the main church. Parts remained visible in 1929, but only a tiny fragment survives today.
Northwestern Bell Tower
The bell tower probably dates from the 1420s and stood northwest of the church. It was already half-collapsed in 1893, and only part of its lower structure survives. Its first floor contained a chapel, with a room and a large window above it. The tower may have followed the plan of the bell tower at Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, dated 1427. The lower remains were partly covered by a decaying modern house, probably during the 1990s.
Monastic Buildings and Lost Features
Southern Monastic Building
The large southern monastic building was two storeys high, and its surviving southern wall forms part of the enclosure. Until about 1960, it retained a courtyard portico with broad round arches and an upper colonnade. The usable part of the ruin is now used for storage by the farming family living on the former monastery grounds.
Western Annex and Fountain
The western zhamatun, an Armenian church annex used as an entrance hall, assembly space, or related communal area, has disappeared. Its connection to the church remains visible, and foundation remains were still present in 1958. It was probably added during the fifteenth or seventeenth century. One architectural interpretation places its construction between the church’s completion in 1424 and the reported destruction of 1461. The Milk Fountain was probably positioned in front of the annex, but the fountain has also disappeared.
