Georgian Churches and Monasteries: 12 Worth the Trip (2026)

Christianity

since 337

Oldest church

478-493

UNESCO sites

4

Entry

mostly free

A short history, so the buildings make sense

King Mirian III of Iberia adopted Christianity as the state religion in 337, and the church has been building ever since. The earliest survivor is Bolnisi Sioni, south of Tbilisi, a plain three-aisled basilica of 478 to 493 with a wooden roof and no dome: a new religion's first serious building. Between 590 and 605 the builders of Jvari, on the hill above Mtskheta, worked out the form that became the Georgian signature, a cross-shaped plan with a dome over the crossing, and almost every church after it is a variation on that.

The tenth to thirteenth centuries were the Golden Age. Bagrat III, David IV the Builder and Queen Tamar ruled the strongest kingdom in the Caucasus, and the money went into Svetitskhoveli, Gelati, Alaverdi, Nikortsminda and the cave city at Vardzia: bigger, taller, carved and painted. Then the Mongols, the Persians and the Ottomans arrived and building shrank to fortress monasteries and cave retreats. The Russian Empire abolished the Georgian church's independence in 1811; the Soviets closed the monasteries and used some as barns and warehouses. Since 1991 the monks and nuns have come back to almost all of them, which is why so many of the places below are working communities rather than museums.

The twelve

Georgia has thousands of churches. These twelve cover the eras, the regions and the ways of building, ranked by how much they add to a trip rather than by age or fame. Every entry fee and closure was checked in September 2026 against the linked guides and the sources named in each section.

Gergeti Trinity

You have seen the photograph: a lone church on a ridge with Mount Kazbek behind it. The 14th-century church sits at 2,170 m above the village of Gergeti, across the river from Stepantsminda, and it is modest by Georgian standards, a plain cross-dome with little carving, which is the point. The building does not compete with the mountain.

Walk up from town, about 7 km return and an hour and a quarter of climbing, or take a 4x4 (20 GEL a seat on the tours; private drivers quote per car); the road is paved to Stepantsminda and a sedan reaches Gergeti. Go early or late. By midday in summer the car park is full. Kazbek hides for whole days at a time and mornings are clearer than afternoons, so sleep in town and look out of the window at dawn rather than betting a day trip on the forecast. The Kazbegi guide has the van, driver and tour options and the Truso and Juta valleys for a second day.

Gelati

If you visit one monastery, make it this one. King David IV founded Gelati in 1106 as a monastery and an academy, and it is the most complete monument of the Golden Age: the 12th-century mosaic of the Virgin and Child in the apse of the main church, walls of frescoes from several centuries, the academy building, and David's own grave under the gateway. It was listed by UNESCO in 1994 together with Bagrati Cathedral in Kutaisi; Bagrati lost its listing in 2017 after its reconstruction, and Gelati kept its.

The practical caveat matters. Gelati has been under rehabilitation for several years after problems with its roof, and as of the most recent visitor reports we could find, from April 2026, the complex is open to the public on Saturdays and Sundays only, with scaffolding on parts of it. Entry is free. Motsameta, about 2 km back down the hill towards Kutaisi, is a small monastery on a cliff above a wooded river bend, free and open every day until nightfall, so on a weekday go there and to Bagrati and save Gelati for the weekend. Gelati is a short drive out of Kutaisi; the Kutaisi guide has the transport.

Mtskheta: Jvari and Svetitskhoveli

Mtskheta, the old capital 20 km north of Tbilisi, holds two of the country's most important buildings within sight of each other, and the town's monuments have been a World Heritage Site since 1994. It is busy by day and still worth every visitor.

Jvari, built between 590 and 605 on the hilltop at the confluence of the Mtkvari and Aragvi rivers, stands where St Nino is said to have raised a wooden cross in the fourth century. It is the prototype of the Georgian cross-dome church and every major church after it owes something to its proportions. The carving outside is severe; inside it is bare stone and quiet.

Svetitskhoveli, down in the town, is the principal cathedral of the Georgian church, completed between 1010 and 1029 by the architect Arsukisdze and the second-largest church in the country after Sameba. Tradition holds that Christ's robe is buried beneath it, brought from Jerusalem in the first century, which is what the name, the Life-giving Pillar, refers to. It is in constant use; expect crowds on Sundays and feast days.

David Gareja

Nothing else in Georgia looks like this: a sixth-century monastery cut into sandstone ridges in a semi-desert on the Azerbaijan border, founded by David, one of the thirteen Assyrian fathers who brought monasticism to the country. The Lavra, the lower monastery where St David is buried, is open, with monks in residence, cave cells and a small painted church. The upper monastery at Udabno, with the finest cave frescoes, has been closed since the 2019 border dispute and guards turn walkers back, so plan on the Lavra and the badlands around it.

The road is paved via Udabno now. Without a car, take the Gareji Line bus from Pushkin Park in Tbilisi (40 GEL return, 10:45 daily in season) or a day tour from about $21, and add the striped Rainbow Hills near Udabno, which are the other half of the trip. The David Gareja guide has the timings and what the border situation means on the ground.

Vardzia

Vardzia is a cave city with a monastery in it. Giorgi III laid it out in the 1150s to 1180s and his daughter Tamar had the Church of the Dormition carved and painted between 1184 and 1186; the frescoes, with her portrait, are a turning point in Georgian wall painting. The complex ran for about 500 m along the cliff in up to nineteen tiers with around 500 caves, until an earthquake in 1283 brought down the cliff face and exposed the interiors. A few monks still live here.

Entry is 15 GEL, with a 15 GEL audio guide and a 2 GEL shuttle up from the car park, and the site opens at 10:00, closing at 19:00 from May to September, 18:00 in spring and autumn and 17:00 from mid-November to the end of February. In May 2026 a rockfall near the exit tunnel damaged part of the path, and as of a guide updated 20 September 2026 the visitor route ends shortly after the Church of the Dormition, so roughly half the complex is closed and you walk back the way you came; no reopening date has been announced. It is 60 km from Akhaltsikhe, where vans leave the bus station at 10:30, 12:20, 16:00 and 17:00 for 8 GEL and take about 90 minutes. Combine it with Rabati fortress in the town; the Akhaltsikhe guide and the Vardzia guide have the detail.

The Kakheti circuit

The wine region has more medieval churches than anywhere else in the country and most visitors drive past them on the way to a cellar. Four of the best make a day's loop from Telavi, with Bodbe added from Sighnaghi.

• Alaverdi, 20 km north-west of Telavi, was founded in the sixth century; the cathedral of St George was built in the eleventh by Kvirike III of Kakheti and at over 55 m was the tallest church in Georgia until Sameba was consecrated in 2004. It is a working monastery with its own cellar, and the frescoes inside are part restored, part fading. Free.
• Ikalto, a short detour on the same road, is a sixth-century monastery with three churches and the ruins of the academy where the poet Shota Rustaveli is said to have studied in the twelfth century. Free and usually empty.
• Nekresi, between Kvareli and Shilda at the foot of the mountains, is a working monastery founded in the sixth century, with a sixth-century basilica and the best view over the Alazani valley on the loop. Free; a shuttle runs up the steep hill from the car park, ask at the gate.
• Gremi, 115 km east of Tbilisi, is the sixteenth-century royal citadel and Church of the Archangels, all that survives of a town that was Kakheti's capital, with a small museum in the tower.
• Bodbe, 2 km below Sighnaghi, is the convent where St Nino, who converted the country, is buried: a basilica first built between the ninth and eleventh centuries, closed by the Soviets in 1924, a convent again since 1991, with the best-kept garden in Georgia. Free, open 10:00 to 18:00; scarves and wrap skirts are lent at the gate.

The Kakheti road trip strings them together with the cellars, and the Sighnaghi guide covers Bodbe and the walk down to it.

Katskhi Pillar

A church on a 40 m natural limestone column. Nobody could reach the top after the original way up was lost, until a party led by the mountaineer Alexander Japaridze and the writer Levan Gotua made the first documented ascent in July 1944 and found the ruins of a church, a cellar and bones; the structures have since been dated to the ninth to tenth century. A monk from Chiatura, Maxim Kavtaradze, settled on top in 1995 and lived there for about 20 years, coming down twice a week. Visitors have not been allowed to climb since 2012, but the monastery at the foot and the viewpoint above it are open and free.

Katskhi is five kilometres out of Chiatura on the Kutaisi road; the 10 GEL marshrutka from Kutaisi's central bus station passes it, and the Chiatura guide builds a day around the pillar, the cable cars and the Mgvimevi convent.

Ananuri

Ananuri is the church most people see without planning to: a fortress of the dukes of Aragvi on the Georgian Military Highway, 67 km north of Tbilisi, above the Jinvali reservoir, where every van and tour to Kazbegi stops for twenty minutes. Inside the walls are two churches: the larger Church of the Assumption with unusually rich carving on its facade, and the smaller brick church against the tall tower, from the first half of the 17th century, which holds the graves of several Aragvi dukes and which most visitors walk past. Entry is free and the fortress is open from dawn to dusk. With your own car, walk the walls for the reservoir view and go down to the shore; the Ananuri guide has the details and the bus times.

Worth the detour

• Nikortsminda, in Racha, about 12 km south of Ambrolauri, was built between 1010 and 1014 under Bagrat III and carries the most elaborate exterior carving in the country: saints, animals and vines over the whole facade. Nothing public goes there; the Racha guide explains the drive.
• Sapara, 12 km from Akhaltsikhe in a forested gorge, is a complex of twelve churches, the 13th-century church of St Saba with 14th-century murals at its centre, and no crowds; the Akhaltsikhe guide covers it with Vardzia.
• Bolnisi Sioni, south of Tbilisi, is the oldest surviving church in Georgia, built between 478 and 493, and one of the few basilicas from before the dome took over.
• Uplistsikhe, near Gori, is a pre-Christian cave town with a tenth-century church on top; 15 GEL and the easiest of the cave sites to reach. See the Uplistsikhe guide.
• Oshki, a tenth-century Georgian cathedral, stands in north-eastern Turkey near Erzurum, partly ruined and empty; scholars rank it with Gelati, and it needs a separate trip.

Without a car

Every church on this page is reachable by van plus a taxi, and the guides linked above give the fares. If you would rather not plan it, these are the group tours from Tbilisi that cover the main sites, each opened on GetYourGuide on 27 September 2026 with the current price read on the listing; they run to a timetable, so you arrive in the middle of the day with everyone else.

Etiquette

These are working churches. Women cover their heads and shoulders inside and wear a skirt below the knee; the busy churches (Sameba, Svetitskhoveli, Jvari, Bodbe) keep baskets of loan scarves and wrap skirts at the entrance, small monasteries may not, so carry your own. Men take hats off and do not wear shorts. No flash, no photos where a sign says so (Sameba and Bodbe both do), whisper, and stand to the side if a service is on. Do not go behind the icon screen in front of the altar; only clergy do. Thin candles are sold at the door for small change, and there is usually a separate stand for candles lit for the dead, so watch where locals put theirs before you choose. The church etiquette guide has the rules church by church and what to do if you turn up dressed wrong.

Three routes

• From Tbilisi, three days. Mtskheta in the morning and Ananuri on the way north, sleeping in Stepantsminda for Gergeti at dawn; the Kakheti loop from Telavi with Bodbe on the way home; David Gareja as the third day.
• From Kutaisi, three days. Gelati on a weekend day with Motsameta and Bagrati; Katskhi and Chiatura; Nikortsminda in Racha with a car.
• From Akhaltsikhe, two days. Vardzia and Rabati; Sapara and the drive back.

Mistakes

• Only doing Gergeti. It is the most photographed, not the most important; Gelati, Jvari and Vardzia have more to look at.
• Turning up at Gelati on a Tuesday. Check the current opening days before you drive out; as of April and May 2026 reports it was weekend days only, the latest saying Sundays.
• Arriving at Vardzia expecting the whole cliff. Half the route has been closed since the May 2026 rockfall.
• Visiting during the Sunday liturgy and wandering about. Stand at the back or come on a weekday.
• No scarf. Carry a light one in the daypack; you will use it daily.
• Four churches in a day. After the third they blur. Mix them with a cellar, a walk or lunch.
• Photographing the outside and leaving. The frescoes, the icon screen and the dark are the point; give your eyes a minute.

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