Temple Of Simon The Canaanite

What to Expect and Is It Worth Visiting

Temple Of Simon The Canaanite (Zealot) it is one of the most important religious sights of New Athos and Abkhazia as a whole. It is believed that it was built on the site where one of the 12 closest disciples of Jesus Christ, Simon the Canaanite, was buried. Simon the Canaanite preached the teachings of Christ, and was brutally murdered (sawn with a saw) by order of the Roman persecutors of the Christian faith near the temple in the gorge of the Psyrtskha River on the way to his cave cell, where another attraction is now located - the grotto of the Holy Apostle Simon the Canaanite.

Sometimes you can hear that the ashes of the Saint rest in the temple itself, but this is incorrect, since the temple was built almost ten centuries after his death, namely, during the heyday of the Abkhazian Kingdom in the IX-X centuries.subsequently, the temple was repeatedly destroyed and restored. The last time it was restored almost from ruins in 1882 by order of the Russian Emperor Alexander III , and it is in this form that it has survived to this day. During the Soviet period, the temple was closed, it housed a library.

Today it is a functioning temple, and it is undergoing a protracted restoration, because of which it is impossible to get inside, but you can inspect the outside at any time. After visiting the temple, you should continue along the tourist route to the cave/grotto of Simon Kananita.

💥 We remind you that it is much more interesting to get acquainted with the sights of Abkhazia with the help of excursions, and therefore we advise you to look at options with online booking on these proven search and comparison sites price:

• 📷 Search for excursions in Abkhazia on Sputnik8.com
• 📷 Search for excursions in Abkhazia on Tripster.ru