Guide
The Ayışığı monastery stands on Cunda Island in the Ayvalık district of Balıkesir. Its date is not established, but it is thought to have been built in the eighteenth century. A wall runs around the complex, and the church sits in the courtyard inside: domed, rectangular in plan and oriented east, with a doorway built of the local sarımsak stone. That stone is itself the evidence for the building's later history — the way it is used indicates that the church was repaired at various times and was pulled down and rebuilt in the 1850s.
Much of the monastery has since collapsed under natural and human damage. The provincial directorate of culture and tourism records it as closed to visitors, so what can be seen of it is seen from outside.
Getting there
The site lies beyond the villages of Aşağı Damlar and Yukarı Damlar: from the entrance to Alibey (Cunda) the road turns towards Pateriça and passes both before reaching it. Local buses serve the route.
