New Athos

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The New Athos Monastery

New Athos (Abkhaz: Афон Ҿыц, Geo. ახალი ათონი, Russian: Новый Афон) is a town in Gudauta raion of Abkhazia, Georgia some 22 km from Sukhumi by the shores of the Black Sea. The town was previously known under the names Nikopol, Akheyzos, Anakopiya, Nikopiya, Nikofiya, Nikopsis, Absara, Psyrtskha.

[edit] History

The town has an ancient history.

A large ancient port town of Anacopia was recorded there in the 3rd century. Its ruins are still visible.
In the 5th century, Abkhazians built a fortress on the top of the Iverian Mountain (Iberian Mountain).
Anacopia was capital of the Abkhazian princedom in the orbit of the Byzantine Empire.
In the late 8th century Abkhazian archon Leon II declared himself king of Abkhazian Kingdom and made Anacopia its capital. Later, the capital was moved to Kutaisi.

[edit] Monastery

In 1874 Russian monks from the overcrowded Rossikon Monastery on Mount Athos arrived to the Caucasus in order to find a place for possible resettlement. They feared that the Ottoman Empire would oust the Russians from Athos after the outbreak of the impending Russo-Turkish War. They selected Psyrtskha, and the Neo-Byzantine New Athos Monastery, dedicated to St. Simon the Canaanite, was constructed there in the 1880s with funds provided by Tsar Alexander III of Russia. Eventually Russian monks were permitted to stay in the "old" Athos, and the New Athos monastery had much less occupancy than anticipated.