Political tension between Tbilisi and its breakaway republic of Abkhazia may be running high, but monks at the New Athos Monastery are striving to rebuild relations – even visiting Georgian families to pray and perform baptisms.

Tucked away on a hillside, surrounded by subtropical plants, the monastery dates back more than a thousand years, but it’s not always been a place of worship.
 
During the Soviet era, people would be dancing on its floor or perhaps watching a communist movie rather than praying, the numbers painted on the seats as lasting evidence of the cinema.
 
In the Abkhazian war the monastery served as a hospital for the wounded before regaining its religious status in 1994.

Although the majority of people in Abkhazia are Orthodox Christians, most don’t attend services – a fact the Christian community wants to change.
 
Bullet holes in buildings of the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi, are a permanent reminder of the mass devastation and destruction caused by the Abkhazian-Georgian war. Religious leaders are now hoping faith and spirituality can help avoid a repetition of such conflict in the future.

Breakaway republic
 
Abkhazia is a de facto independent breakaway republic with no international recognition.

A secessionist movement unilaterally declared independence from Georgia in 1992, which led to a Georgian-Abkhazian armed conflict.

Stability in the republic is currently maintained by a UN-monitored Russian-led peacekeeping mission.

Tensions in the region are among the main stumbling blocks in relations between Georgia and Russia, which supports Russian citizens living in the republic.