Amenap'rkich monastery

 church, christianity, Armenian Apostolic church

Amenap'rkich monastery (Armenian: Ամենափրկիչ Վանք romanized: Amenaprgič Vank) or Kaymaklı Monastery (Turkish: Kaymaklı Manastırı, Amenapırgiç Manastırı) is a ruined Armenian Apostolic monastery in Kaymaklı district of Trabzon, Turkey. The monastery originally included a church, a bell tower at the northwest corner, and a small chapel near the southeast corner. The monastery is located on top of Boztepe hill, three kilometres southeast of Trabzon (40°59′39″N 39°44′39″E). The site overlooks the Değirmendere Valley.

An Armenian community existed in Trabzon as early as the 7th century. During the Mongol invasions of the 13th and 14th centuries, numerous Armenian families fled here from Ani. However, exact date of the monastery's foundation and origin remains unclear. A religious community was present at the site from at least the fifteenth century, and possibly as early as the eleventh. The oldest structure in the compound is dated to 1424. In 1461 it was pillaged and destroyed by Turks. In the 16th century, the rebuilt monastery became a center of Armenian manuscript production.

It was named Ամենափրկիչ Վանք (Amenaprgič Vank) in Armenian, which translates as "Monastery of the All-Saviour". The Ottoman Sultan Murad III is said to have eaten a meal at the monastery consisting only of dairy products. He confirmed the monastery's possession of its lands, and the place came to be called in Turkish Kaymaklı, meaning "with/of kaymak", in memory of the occasion. Previously it had been called Yesil Manastir - the Green Monastery.

Until 1915 it served as the seat of the Trebizond diocese tied to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. At this time, the vibrant Armenian community of the city numbered 30,000. In 1915, the normal functions of the monastery were interrupted when it was used as a transit camp for Armenians being deported to Syria during the Armenian genocide.[3] After the Russian capture of Trebizond, Armenian monks returned to the monastery, and monks were there until sometime after World War I, supposedly 1923.

A fire may have partially ruined the site at a later date. By the 1950s, the main church was roofless and most of the bell-tower had been destroyed. In the current day, the Kaymaklı Monastery is a protected building in Trabzon. There have been slight modifications to the building in terms of restorations, like a modern roof made of metal. The monastery is currently not in use but can be visited by anyone who opts to do so.