A group of beech trees growing in the shape of a cross and believed to be roughly 100 years old were found on a hill named Geris in Inebolu (Grk: Inepolis) in Turkey. The trees can be seen clearly from the market, from the entrance to the bridge, and from the area around the bureau of meteorology of Inebolu. According to local researchers, the trees were planted in the shape of a cross and are roughly 100 years old. Each tree is planted 10 metres apart from the other. Στα Ελληνικά   In Turkish

 THE TREES ON THE HILL NAMED GERIS IN INEBOLU

Translated from Greek to Engish by Pontosworld.com

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On this hill where dense chestnut trees and other trees grow, the 100 year old beech trees in the form of a cross, don't appear to be there by chance.

The hill named Geris is situated in close proximity to Inebolu. It has a height of 495 metres and from it, all of Inebolu can been seen. The ruins of a church or monastery also exists here, but it's unknown when the structure was built. It‘s believed to be one of the best known monasteries of Pontus from around the year 1900. That's also according to the allocution of the all mighty Ataturk too. The monastery was renovated and then put into use by Father Klamatyas. It's believed to be the first point of call or meeting place for the Pontic Greeks of Asia Minor.

When the Ottoman-Greek Wars began, a priest by the name of Klamatyus came to Inebolu. He was an Orthodox Greek (Rum) refugee from America, and he began preaching to the Greeks of the neighbouring villages in the monasteries of Geris. Some time later, he handed his position over to a priest by the name of Haci Ligorun Yorgi (most likely Giorgo Hatzigregorio; Ligor is most likely Gregory). Haci Ligorun Yorgi then went on to establish a fortnightly festival which ran from the 15th of August through to the 30th of August each year.

He also added two new wings to the northern and southern sections of the monastery with his personal aim of entertaining representatives of the local communities. Later it's believed that the monastery was used to store weapons.

According to information (spy's reports) that was gathered by Abdul Hamid during those years, the monastery had gone beyond what it was intended to be used for, and for that reason he closed it and had guards watch over it. Following the exodus of the Greeks from the city in 1923, the church was completely demolished and the region looted.

In the years that followed, great interest surrounded the visit of Bartholomew, Patriarch of the Orthodox Church to Kastamonu and Inebolu. He was invited to the region by businessman Huseyin Ozturk whose wife is Greek. He visited the regions where Greeks lived around Inebolu before the War of Independence. The patriarch Bartholomew searched for signs of a Greek spirit by visiting the neighbourhood of Karaca where Greeks lived in the year 1900, and where the currently functioning mosque was formerly a church. He declared that the mosque was in fact the church of Saint Stephanos. The Patriarch together with the mayors of Abana and Inebolu, also visited the ruins of the church on the hill named Geris.

Inebolu Post Office 10/05/2009