Turkish authorities have opened a new safety review of Panagia Soumela, the historic Pontic Greek monastery built into the cliffs of Trabzon, after rockfalls along the access route raised safety concerns.
The review does not focus on the main monastery complex itself, which underwent years of restoration and rock-stabilization work. Instead, it centers on a roughly 300- to 400-meter stretch of the access route leading to the site, an area that officials say had not previously received a full risk assessment.
According to Turkish media reports, the Trabzon Governor’s Office is working with Karadeniz Technical University on the new study. Specialists will use LiDAR aerial scanning to read the landscape from above and produce a more exact picture of the terrain, including areas partly hidden by vegetation. Once unstable sections are identified, engineers will be able to model how a rock might move if it breaks loose, including its direction, speed, and impact force.
Based on those findings, authorities are expected to decide whether additional measures are needed, such as protective mesh, barriers, or reinforcement of existing structures.
Officials have not described the area as facing an urgent, site-wide threat. The concern is more specific: Panagia Soumela sits in a steep, fragile mountain setting, where even a minor rockfall could pose serious risks. Professor Hakan Ersoy of Karadeniz Technical University has noted that rockfalls have occurred at the site for decades, with several past cases resulting in injuries.
The new review follows a difficult decade for the monastery, marked by closure, phased restoration, partial reopenings, and additional rock-stabilization work. The site was closed in 2015 because of safety and restoration concerns. Restoration work began in 2016, and reached a first milestone in May 2019, when the monastery reopened to visitors; a fuller reopening followed in 2021 after additional stabilization work, though further closures continued before it welcomed visitors again in 2022.
For Pontic Greeks, Panagia Soumela is not simply a tourist site. After the uprooting of the Greek Orthodox population from Pontus, devotion to the monastery traveled with refugees into Greece and the wider diaspora. Its name was given to churches, associations, and pilgrimage sites, most famously the new Panagia Soumela monastery on Mount Vermio in northern Greece, where Pontic communities continue to gather each August.
Today, the original monastery in Trabzon is promoted heavily as a cultural and tourism landmark by Turkish authorities, while also remaining a place of deep religious and historical significance for Greeks around the world.
Visitor numbers show how important the site has become. In 2025, Sümela Monastery drew 514,596 visitors, passing the half-million mark and recording a 16 percent increase from the previous year, according to figures reported by Turkish officials. It was described as the highest number of visitors since the monastery reopened.
The monastery is also on Turkey’s UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. That status does not make it a full World Heritage Site, but it places the monument among the sites Turkey has identified for possible future nomination.
The latest review reflects two realities at once. Panagia Soumela is drawing more visitors than ever, and the mountain that made it so unforgettable also makes it difficult to protect. For Turkish authorities, the question is one of access, safety, and preservation. For Pontic Greeks, it reaches further. A monastery carved into the cliffs of Trabzon still lives in August pilgrimages, in churches and associations named after it, and in families that carried its memory long after they left Pontus.