Guide
Gümüşler is carved into a single great rock and is one of the best-preserved large monasteries in Cappadocia. Rock-cut monasteries in the region fall into two groups, those with a refectory and those built around an open courtyard; Gümüşler belongs to the second. Its most important structure is the church at the north end of the complex.
At least three different painters are thought to have worked on the church's wall paintings, and the divisions between their hands can be followed room by room. In the main apse the paintings run in three bands: at the top Christ enthroned with two angels at his right and the symbols of the evangelists, then the Virgin and the apostles in a Deesis, and in the lowest band the church fathers — Basil the Great of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzus. The Annunciation, the Nativity and the Presentation in the Temple in the north arm of the cross, together with the figures of John the Baptist and St Stephen, must be by a second artist. The Virgin and Child with the archangels Gabriel and Michael on either side, south of the door leading from the inner narthex into the nave, belong to a third.
The most unexpected painting is not religious at all. On the walls of a room above the narthex is a composition of hunting scenes and assorted animals, which the Ministry states has no other example in Cappadocia. Judged by the iconography and style of its wall paintings, as with many Cappadocian churches, the church is thought to have been built in the 11th or 12th century. Buses of the Gümüşler municipality leave the town garage in the centre of Niğde every hour on the hour.
