Gelati Monastery

Gelati stands on a hillside eleven kilometres from Kutaisi and counts as the principal cultural centre of medieval Georgia. The monastery was founded in 1106 by David IV the Builder, the king who united the country and drove out the Seljuks. For him it was never only a religious house: an academy was established here teaching philosophy, geometry, rhetoric and astronomy, and contemporaries called it a second Jerusalem and a new Athens.

Gelati is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, and that status remains current.

The heart of the complex is the main Church of the Virgin. In the apse is a 12th-century mosaic of the Theotokos flanked by archangels — one of the largest surviving medieval mosaics in the Caucasus. The walls carry layers of fresco painted between the 12th and 18th centuries, including portraits of Georgian kings.

What you see on site:

• the Church of the Virgin with its mosaic and multi-layered wall painting
• the churches of St George and St Nicholas
• the academy building, where the stone benches still stand
• the bell tower and the spring beneath it

David the Builder's grave lies at the southern gate. By tradition the king asked to be buried in the entrance itself, so that everyone entering would step over him — a last, deliberately humble gesture from Georgia's most powerful medieval ruler.