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# Unique village celebrates complete renovation
- URL: https://www.assyriapost.com/unique-village-celebrates-complete-renovation/
- Published: 2026-09-13T20:32:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-13T20:35:03.000Z
- Description: After years of painstaking renovation, the bells rang today over Dayro du Slibo, the "Monastery of the Cross", as hundreds gathered to celebrate the official reopening of one of Tur Abdin's most extraordinary Assyrian villages.
- Author: The Assyria Post
- Tags: Assyria, Turkey

Known in Turkish as Çatalçam, a neighbourhood in the district of Dargeçit, Mardin Province, the village sits on the slope of Mount Eloyo in southeastern Turkey's Assyria region. 

From early morning, families from neighboring villages; Midyat, Hah, Tur Izlo — arrived alongside guests from the diaspora. Many were returning for the first time in decades to the homes their grandparents were forced to leave.

The festival featured folk dances, drum and zurna, and a liturgy in the Church of the Holy Cross celebrated by clergy of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch.

### A village inside a monastery

What makes Dayro du Slibo architecturally unique in all of Assyria is its structure: the entire village *lives inside the monastery*.

There is only one access to the village–the massive Monastery Gate. Once through the gate, the visitor does not enter a cloister in the classical sense, but a living village: Assyrian family houses built of honey-colored local limestone crowd the inner courtyard, their flat roofs and arched windows interwoven with four ancient churches – Mor Aḥō, the Holy Cross, Mor Ḥworo, and Mor Barṣawmo. The visitor feels as if entering a residential labyrinth. 

The high outer walls that once protected monks now protect families. Defensive architecture became domestic architecture. Inside, narrow passages lead from house to house, while the churches form the spiritual and social center.

Historians believe this fortified monastic-village model developed during centuries of insecurity, when the local Assyrian population sought shelter behind consecrated walls. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/5d/f5/5df5a6c1-1f57-4975-951e-ddd33d31dec7/content/images/2026/09/Screenshot-2026-09-13-at-22.19.33-1.png)

The village from a distance. 

Dayro du Slibo lies in the heart of Tur Abdin, "Mountain of the Servants of God", the historic homeland of Assyrian Christianity. Perched above the Tigris plain, the region has been continuously inhabited by Assyrians.

Like many villages in Turabdin, Çatalçam was largely emptied during the conflicts of the late 20th century. The renovation project, funded largely by diaspora associations of the village in cooperation with local authorities, aimed not just to restore stones but to make return possible. 

The large scale restoration of Dayro du Slibo is yet another positive step in the rejuvenation of the Assyrian Tur Abdin Region, which is seeing rapid developments after decades of emigration.