Pelekete monastery
Mudanya, Turkey
Open to visitors
The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.
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The Pelekete Monastery, a ruined Byzantine monastery near Tirilye in Turkey (ancient Trigleia in Bithynia), dates to the 8th century, though its precise founding date remains unknown. Its Greek name, meaning "hewn with an axe," refers to its dramatic setting on a steep rock. The monastery became a centre of iconodule resistance to Byzantine Iconoclasm; in 763/4, the zealous iconoclast governor Michael Lachanodrakon attacked and burned it, torturing its hegoumenos Theosteriktos and burying 38 monks alive at Ephesus. After iconoclasm's first phase ended, the monastery was rebuilt under the hegoumenos Makarios, though it faced renewed persecution following the resumption of Iconoclasm after 813. The site subsequently vanishes from historical records but is identified by modern scholars with monastery ruins about 5 kilometres west of Tirilye, dedicated to Saint John the Theologian—a name preserved in the local Turkish corruption "Aya Yani" or "Ayani."
Movement
- Built
- Type
- church building
- Place
- Mudanya, Turkey
This building on
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Location