New Athos Monastery
New Athos Monastery is a monastery in New Athos, municipality of Gudauta, in a breakaway republic of Abkhazia. New Athos Monastery was founded in 1875 by monks who came from the St. Panteleimon Monastery in Mount Athos, with Mount Athos having been an important site for the Orthodox Church since 1054.
History
The unfinished monastery was looted during the Russo-Turkish War during 1877-1878, and the construction works for the monastery continued during the 1880s, with the structure finally being completed in 1900.In the center of the western building, a building bell tower 50 metres high was erected. In the lower part of the bell tower, a monastic refectory is located. In the middle of the monastic complex stands the five-domed church of St. Panteleimon, in the architecture of which traits of the so-called Neo-Byzantine style are discernible. The interior of the church is embellished with murals, painted between 1911 and 1914. St Panteleimon is the largest Cathedral in Abkhazia.
The monastery was closed between 1924 and 1994 due to the Soviet persecution of religion. After this point, the monastery returned to the Orthodox Church.
The monastery is currently used by the schismatic, while it is also claimed by the schismatic Abkhazian Orthodox Church and thle Georgian Orthodox Church.