Samtsevrisi Church of St George

Samtsevrisi is small, and that is exactly why it is taught. This 7th-century church in Kareli municipality stands on a low hill above the Mtkvari plain and is one of the cleanest surviving examples of the Georgian free-cross plan: all four arms read separately from outside, with the dome sitting at their crossing and nothing else added.

The type looks simple but is not. Mass and void are balanced so carefully that the building appears much larger than its actual size. The facades carry almost no decoration — no ornamental crosses, no carved window frames. The entire effect rests on proportion and on the quality of the cut stone. That is why architecture students and photographers keep coming, even though there is effectively nothing inside.

Inside really is minimal: white walls, narrow windows, light dropping from the dome. No wall painting has survived. Around the church on the hill are traces of older structures and scattered gravestones.

The view earns the trip on its own. The Greater Caucasus range shows to the north, the Trialeti mountains to the south, and between them the Mtkvari plain with its orchards. Late autumn and early spring are best, when the air is clear and the mountains stand out; in high summer the plain is often hazy and the distance disappears.