Novyy Afon, Orthodox monastery town in Gudauta District, Abkhazia
Novyy Afon is a settlement on the Black Sea coast in Gudauta District, Abkhazia, surrounded by mountains, caves, and subtropical vegetation. The place spreads between the shore and the hills, where monastery buildings and fortress ruins shape the landscape.
In the 8th century, the Anakopia Fortress was the capital of an Abkhazian princedom before Byzantine and later Georgian rulers took control of the region. In the 19th century, Russian monks arrived and founded the monastery that gave the place its name.
The monastery was built by Russian monks in the late 19th century and follows the rites of the Orthodox Church. Services still take place inside, and the buildings keep their original architectural style.
Regular bus connections run from the nearby city of Sukhumi, and several accommodations offer rooms with views of the mountains or the sea. The path to the fortress on the hill involves stairs and trails that can be demanding for many visitors.
A small hydroelectric station on the Psyrtskha River was built by the monks themselves between 1892 and 1903 and still supplies electricity to the monastery today. At the time, it was considered technically advanced and remains one of the oldest working installations of its kind in the region.
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