Eski Gümüş
The monastery complex of Eski Gümüş ( Turkish for old silver ) is located near the village of Gümüşler in the Turkish province of Niğde , about ten kilometers east of the provincial capital Niğde . It is one of the best preserved facilities in Cappadocia and is located at the southern end of the Cappadocian core area.
Coordinates: 37 ° 59 ′ 54 ″ N , 34 ° 46 ′ 19.3 ″ E
investment
The rooms are grouped around an upwardly open, roughly square inner courtyard that was cut into the surrounding rocks like a light shaft. The courtyard has an access tunnel in the south, which is artificially created and which could be defended against attackers through an opening in the top. The facades in the courtyard are structured by blind niches and pilaster strips and decorated with crosses, and beam holes can be seen at the top. They suggest that there was at least partial roofing. This is also supported by the remains of a pillar construction in the center of the courtyard.
In the south corner of the courtyard is the entrance to an underground city with numerous living and utility rooms, the entrances to which could be closed by the millstone-like rolling stones common in the Cappadocian region. The rooms continue up on two floors above ground on the southwest side. On the northeast side there is the refectory and a burial chapel with three apses , adjoining this and in the front, southeastern part, a series of tombs.
church
The monastery church is located on the northwest side of the courtyard. To the left is the entrance to the outer narthex , to the right of it to the inner narthex , which is decorated with frescoes of Mary with the Child between the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. This is followed by the cross-domed church , the hall of which is divided by four columns. They do not have a load-bearing function, but only serve to divide the room and are decorated with colored geometric and floral patterns. In the northwest there is a niche with two sarcophagi . The frescoes on the northwest side show the Annunciation and the birth of Christ. In the main apse in the northeast, a three-tiered frieze depicts Christ with the Mother of God, the Archangel Gabriel, the four evangelists, the apostles and other church fathers. The paintings are dated to the eleventh century.
Research history
The Eski Gümüş monastery complex was researched and described by the British archaeologist Michael Gough in 1962/3 . The frescoes were restored in the 1970s. Finds from Eski Gümüş can be viewed in the Niğde Archaeological Museum , which was also involved in excavations.
literature
- Michael Gough : The Monastery of Eski Gümüş. A preliminary report , in: Anatolian Studies 14 (1964) 147-161.
- Michael Gough: The Monastery of Eski Gümüş. Second preliminary report , in: Anatolian Studies 15 (1965) 157-164.
Web links
- kenthaber.com ( Memento from December 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Dorn. Turkey - Central Anatolia: between Phrygia, Ankara and Cappadocia . DuMont, 2006, ISBN 3770166167 , p. 307 at GoogleBooks