Alaverdi Monastery
Confession: Georgian Orthodox Church
Foundation date: VI century.
Status:Active monastery
Condition: Good
From Tbilisi: 106 km / 1 hour 57 min
Alaverdi Monastery is located in the Alazani valley, near the village of Alaverdi< /strong> Akhmeta municipality. In the middle of the 6th century, the Assyrian fatherJosephAlaverdelihe founded the smallChurch of St. George strong> but in the 11th century Kvirikena, the king of Kakheti, built a Cathedral on the site of this church. The cathedral is one of the largest in Georgia, the second tallest after Tsminda Sameba in Tbilisi, has over 50 meters in height.
Since the 11th century, Alaverdi has been aroyal palaceand members of the Kakheti royal house were buried here.
Alaverdi Temple was repeatedly destroyed as a result of earthquakes and landslides. In 1742, during an earthquake, the monastery was damaged. Queen Tamar began the restoration, and Irakli II completed it. In 1966, when the interior walls were cleared of late 19th-century whitewash, several layers of painting were found beneath the whitewash, including fragments of 11th-century paintings. On the walls there are frescoes from the 15th-16th centuries (on the southern wall) and frescoes from the 16th-17th centuries (on the western and northern walls).
Surrounded by a fence of the 17th-18th centuries, the Alaverdi monastery complex includes buildings built in different centuries. Including athree-story chamber, one of the most important of its kind in Georgia. Itslarge vaulted hall, located on the lower floor, was a refectory in the 16th-17th centuries. At the beginning of the 17th century, the palace of the ruler of Ganja, Feykar Khan, was built of brick, and its main site is an eight-arched building with wide arches, on which a square, low room is built. There are other residential buildings, as well as a bathhouse, cellar, bell tower and much more.
Initially, Alaverdi was a paternal monasteryand in the 17th-18th centuries a convent was also founded. Members of the royal family lived here as nuns.
