Katskhi Pillar
A forty-metre limestone monolith with a church on top — visitors cannot climb it.
- Time needed
- 1 h
- From Tbilisi
- 205 km · 3:00
- Road
- Paved
- Car needed
- Economy class
- Season
- All year
- Entry
- free
Katskhi Pillar stands near Chiatura by the village of Katskhi: a natural limestone monolith rising roughly forty metres from the surrounding land, ending in a flat summit. On top sit a small church and monastic cells, traditionally dated to the 9th or 10th century.
The site was a place of worship in pagan times, and later the tradition of stylites — monks who lived on pillars — took hold here. Its modern history began in the 1990s, when the monk Maxime Qavtaradze climbed up and lived there in near-total isolation for decades, hauling food and building material up on a chain ladder and a winch.
Important: visitors are not allowed to climb the pillar. The ladder is reserved for clergy, tourists are not permitted to the top, and no exceptions are made. What remains is the view from below, which is genuinely enough: a forty-metre stone column crowned by a church is striking from a distance.
At the base is a monastery complex with a church and courtyard, open to visitors. A stop takes about forty minutes, and it combines well with the cable cars and Soviet mining landscape of Chiatura a short drive away.
Gallery
Practical advice
Do not plan on going up — you cannot even approach the ladder, and this is enforced. The best photographs come in the morning or late afternoon, when the sun hits the pillar from the side; at midday the light is flat. Standard monastery dress applies in the lower courtyard: headscarf for women, long trousers for men. Forty minutes covers it. Toilets are basic; cafes and ATMs are in Chiatura, about ten kilometres away.
How to get there from Tbilisi
From Tbilisi take the E60 west towards Zestaponi, then turn north for Chiatura and continue about ten kilometres to Katskhi — around 205 km and three hours. The route is paved throughout. The Chiatura road is narrow and damaged in places by mining traffic, but it presents no problem for an economy car. Fuel is available in Zestaponi and Chiatura. There is a small parking area by the pillar with limited space for coaches.
Click a marker for details. Coloured lines are ready-made road trips.
Nearby places
MonasteryNikortsminda Cathedral
An 11th-century cathedral covered in exceptional stone carving, with late medieval frescoes inside.
MonasteryGelati Monastery
The monastery and academy founded by David the Builder, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.