Skhalta Cathedral

Skhalta is the only medieval church in Adjara still standing complete. It dates from the early 13th century and sits in Khulo municipality, in the narrow Skhalta valley, with the last few kilometres of the approach running through forest. That geography is not incidental: remoteness is what saved it. From the 16th century Adjara lay inside the Ottoman Empire and the population gradually converted to Islam. Most churches were dismantled, or turned into barns and stores. Skhalta came through — in part because the valley is deep and there was no road. The building is a hall church of dressed stone. Outside, the things worth looking at are: - The relief on the west facade — a plain, deeply cut cross, typical of late medieval Georgian carving - Window surrounds framed with an ornamental band, partly damaged - A bell tower added in the 19th century Inside there are fragments of fresco: the Virgin and several saints, the colour largely gone but the drawing still readable. They are generally dated to the 14th or 15th century. The church was restored in the 2000s and is active again, served by a small monastic community. Skhalta is not a viewpoint. It is the opposite — sunk at the bottom of a valley, hemmed in by wooded slopes. It is worth the drive because it is the one place where the Christian past of Adjara is directly, physically in front of you rather than a matter of record.

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