Guide
The monastery of the Virgin stands in the village of Sarıyer, eleven kilometres east of Şebinkarahisar in Giresun. Its origins are Byzantine, but a visitor should know what survives is not: the building suffered heavy destruction and the remains standing today date entirely from the 19th century, when it was completely renewed.
It is built into a large hollow in the middle of a sheer cliff, which is why it recalls Sümela near Trabzon; the Ministry suggests the builders here were influenced by that monastery. Dressed stone appears here and there, but the fabric is mostly irregular local rubble. In front of the monastery a water cistern stands on the left and a fountain of dressed stone on the right.
The complex holds thirty-two rooms with painted walls. On the second level, reached by a stair, four student rooms of equal size stand side by side, and at the very top is the church, cut into the rock, each of its aisles with its own apse. Dormitory, classroom, church, refectory, fountain and other structures all sit together in the one complex.
After long neglect the monastery was restored in 2013 and 2014 by the Governorship of Giresun and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It is protected as a first-degree natural and archaeological site, and in 2014 the Ministry declared it an archaeological site and opened it to visitors. It is 115 kilometres from Giresun to Şebinkarahisar and a further eleven to the monastery, and the road is easy by car.
