St.George Monastery is one of the most ancient and revered in the Crimea. According to legend, it was founded in 891 by Byzantine fishermen who were shipwrecked near Cape Fiolent. The monastery is located in a very picturesque place on the high shore above the Jasper beach.
The ship of the Byzantine fishermen crashed on the coastal rocks, but the sailors began to pray to St. George the Victorious. On a rock near the shore, Saint George appeared to them, with his hands raised to sky. After that, the storm immediately subsided. The surviving sailors then climbed the rock and found an icon of St. George on it. After that, they founded the St. George Monastery on the shore near the rock. On top of the rock, they installed a Cross of Worship, and the rock itself was called the Rock of the Holy Apparition.
This rock has become an Orthodox shrine of the Crimea. The cross was originally made of wood and was often broken by storm waves. In 1891, in honor of the millennial foundation of the monastery, a marble cross was installed on the Rock of the Holy Apparition.
The Monastery of St. George is built on the high shore of Cape Fiolent. A small garden with flower beds and viewing points were created near it in 2019. From here you can enjoy the most beautiful views of Cape Fiolent. The staircase to the Jasper Beach of 891 steps begins here. It is called the Path of Health.
The first cells of the Byzantine monastery were cut into the rock. For the Byzantine settlements of those times, this was a common thing. Near Bakhchisarai there were not only cave monasteries, but also whole cave settlements. The largest of them, Mangup-Kale, later became the capital of the Byzantine principality of Feodoro. Later, stone temples were built in the St. George Monastery, but it is not known how they looked like.
The first documentary mention of the monastery was made only in 1578 by Martin Bronevsky. He was the ambassador of Stefan Batory to the Crimean Khanate. After visiting the Crimea, Bronevsky published a book "Description of the Crimea", where he told about the St. George Monastery on Cape Fiolent.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the buildings of the monastery became dilapidated. They were completely dismantled and new temples in the classical style were built on this site. They have survived to the present day. In 1820, Alexander Pushkin visited the St. George Monastery, who traveled to the Crimea with the Rayevsky family. On September 6, they arrived at the monastery through the Baydar Valley, and then went to Bakhchisarai. In honor of this visit, a monument has been erected on one of the viewing points. The Monastery of St. George was visited many times by Russian tsars.
St. George`s Monastery is located on the southernmost outskirts of Sevastopol. The resort village of Balaklava is 10 kilometers away, so the monastery is often called the Balaklava St. George Monastery.
