Temple of Simon Cananite

The temple of Simon Cananita is located in one of the most picturesque places of the city of New Athos, Abkhazia. It is a small structure built of white hewn stone. Four square pillars, freely standing in the middle of the building, are connected by arches and hold the top of the temple, made in the shape of a drum and covered with a dome. On the axes of the temple there are magnificent vaulted passages, forming an inscribed cross. A stable system of interconnected cells and spaces determines the strict composition of the temple. Highly raised dome plays a major role in the composition of the monastery.

In November 1875, a reconstruction was carried out in the temple, as a result of which most of the walls were whitewashed and their heights changed, and a magnificent profiled cornice appeared, the top became round, and the dome acquired a new shape. Above the western porch of the temple, the monks built a bell tower, but the southern and western porticoes located above the entrances were never restored.

Since the end of the XIX century, the monastery cemetery was located on the south side of the temple, where in 1889 Bishop Gennady of Sukhum was buried, and in 1912 - the rector of the New Athos monastery Archimandrite Hieron.