Nekresi Monastery

Nekresi sits on the southern slope of the Caucasus near Kvareli, about three hundred metres above the valley floor. The complex holds several buildings, and the oldest of them is a small three-nave chapel dated to the second half of the fourth century — one of the earliest surviving church structures in the country, built within a few decades of Christianity becoming the state religion. It is plain, low and easy to walk past, which is part of its appeal.

Beside it stand the Trinity church of the sixth or seventh century, a ninth-century archbishop's palace with a vaulted hall, and a large marani where some fifty qvevri are sunk into the floor. The monastery was renewed in the sixth century by Abibos of Nekresi, one of the Assyrian Fathers, whose name is tied to the struggle against Zoroastrian fire worship and who was killed for it.

Private cars cannot drive up. You leave the car at a lower car park and take a shuttle minibus that covers the two kilometres of steep climbing; alternatively you can walk the path in about forty minutes. From the top the Alazani plain and the Caucasus wall open out across the whole horizon, and for many visitors that panorama, rather than any single building, is what the trip is remembered for. The grounds are shaded and stay pleasant even in summer.