Roughly 10km out of Borçka on the Artvin road in northeastern Turkey a sign to the left points up into the mountains to a small chapel in the middle of nowhere.
The road starts promisingly with some stabilisation but quickly deteriorates into a rutted track with no further signs to point the way. Keep going straight, then fork left until you reach a gate leading to a solitary house. If you follow the path beside it and then walk straight ahead across a meadow to the far side, then turn downhill and walk through the hazelnut trees you should find the chapel – although it’s a mere wreck of a thing with bushes growing out of its roof.
Once this must have been a suprisingly splendid chapel for such a remote place, its walls and dome completely covered with frescoes, including a surviving inscription in Greek that suggests this was a Greek Orthodox church even though this is a Georgian part of the world.
Unfortunately a fatal combination of the elements and local treasure-hunters convinced there was gold buried here have reduced the building to a sorry state. You can just about make out figures of saints and a huge hand holding tiny personified souls but that’s about it.
The hamlet above the meadow and the hazelnut bushes has a couple of lovely old brick houses with wooden frames. The few remaining villagers speak Georgian (Gürcü) as their first language.
Transport info
There is no way to get here without your own wheels or a taxi from Borçka. At least one taxi driver now knows the way to the ruins!
Read more about my visit: http://www.turkeyfromtheinside.com/blogbloggingaboutturkey/entry/56-the-church-that-almost-wasnt.html
The residents of İbradi speak Georgian as their first language
