Manastır Kaya Hotel

Monastery Cave Hotel

Useful Information

Location:	Davutlu, Zafer Cd. No:3, 50420 Mustafapaşa. (38.5825292, 34.8968632)
Open:	All year daily. [2024]
Fee:
Classification:	Cave House
Light:	Incandescent Coloured Light
Dimension:	13 cave rooms
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Monastery Cave Hotel, Ercan Karagöz, Davutlu, Zafer Cd. No:3, 50420 Mustafapaşa, Ürgüp, Nevşehir, Tel: +90-536-831-53-37. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

1968	cave hotel opened.

Description

Manastır Kaya Hotel (Monastery Cave Hotel) is actually located inside a former monastery, which was abandoned in 1922. The monastery was Greek Orthodox, which was due to the fact that the village was also predominantly inhabited by Greeks, Turkey occupied Greece until the 19th century, but then the Greeks rebelled and expelled them. After World War I the Greek realized that Turkey was weaker than ever, and so they started the Greco-Turkish War, in the attempt to gain the territory where Greeks lived in Anatolia. The war ran from 1919 to 1922, but the Greek campaign actually failed. As a result of the war the Greeks living throughout Turkey were forced to leave the country. It was a massive population exchange where the Greeks in Turkey were relocated to Greece and the Turks in Greece were relocated to Turkey. This population exchange between Greece and Turkey is called Mübâdele in Turkey. As more than 60 % of the inhabitants of Mustafapaşa were Greek, it had a massive influence on the city. Even the name was changed, the city was formerly known as Σινασός (Sinasos). And the Greek monastery and all the Greek cave churches at Mustafapaşa were abandoned.

It was transformed into a hotel and opened in 1968. Since then, it is family run, run successively by three generations of the same family. The current owner is Ercan, who speaks English, French, Spanish and Greek, which is quite helpful with international guests. In front of the caves are terraces, shaded by vine-covered trellis, where you can sit in the evening and listen to traditional saz music played by local musicians. The restaurant offers traditional food made exclusively from local fresh produce, it was awarded best in the city by Restaurant Guru.