Gelati Monastery

Gelati sits on a wooded hillside above the Tskaltsitela gorge a few kilometres northeast of Kutaisi, and it was built to be both a monastery and a university. King David IV, known as David the Builder, founded it in 1106, when Kutaisi was the capital of Georgia, and gathered scholars there who had studied at the great Orthodox centres abroad, including Constantinople. Contemporaries called the Gelati Academy "a new Hellas" and "a second Athos". Among its teachers were Ioane Petritsi, the philosopher who translated and commented on Proclus, and Arsen Ikaltoeli.

The main church, dedicated to the Virgin, was completed in 1130 under David's son Demetrius I, and smaller churches and a bell tower were added over the following centuries. They are built of solid stone on a cross-shaped plan, with walls meant to catch the sunlight and be seen far across the country, a showpiece of the Georgian Golden Age. The prize inside is the mosaic in the apse, a twelfth-century image of the Virgin holding the Christ Child in the Byzantine manner, counted among the great works of Georgian art. Some of the murals inside also date back to the twelfth century.

David IV is buried here, in a tomb near the south gate, close to the ancient gates of Ganja, carried off as a trophy by his son Demetrius in 1138. Many later Georgian and Imeretian kings were buried at Gelati too. The monastery's most famous icon, the Khakhuli triptych, was kept here from the twelfth century until it was stolen in 1859; it came back in 1923, much reduced.

Gelati was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1994 and was on the danger list from 2010 to 2017 over conservation concerns; conservation of the roofs and the academy building has continued since. It is an active monastery, so dress modestly and keep quiet during services. A pleasant way to extend the visit is the walk of about an hour, mostly downhill, to Motsameta monastery on its cliff above the river.

Getting there

Gelati is about 7 km from central Kutaisi by straight line. Marshrutka minibuses leave Kutaisi for Gelati roughly hourly during the day, taking about 30 minutes, and taxis are easy to find; check current departure times. David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport (KUT) is about 27 km away.