Zedazeni Monastery

Zedazeni is a 6th-century monastery on a wooded ridge, and the climb is worth making partly for the view and partly for the silence. From the terrace in front of the church the Mtkvari and Aragvi valleys open below, Mtskheta is a pale smudge to the west, and on a clear morning the snow line of the Greater Caucasus stands along the northern horizon.

The name comes from Zaden, a pagan deity whose idol is said to have stood on this hill before Christianity. Around 545 John, leader of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers, settled on exactly that spot — the choice was not accidental — and the place has been called Zedazeni, "above Zaden", ever since. John's disciples scattered across Kartli and Kakheti and founded the monasteries that still define this part of Georgia, Shio-Mgvime and Alaverdi among them.

The main church is an 8th-century three-nave basilica raised over John's grave, which lies under the floor at the east end. It is plain to the point of severity: undressed stone, small windows, almost no carving. Around it stand:

• the remains of a curtain wall and a corner tower on the exposed side

• a two-storey bell tower and the ruined cells of the monks

• a spring below the church, associated with John and still used by pilgrims

The monastery was abandoned for long stretches and rebuilt several times; monks returned in the 1990s, so parts of the enclosure are now closed to visitors. The forest on the way up is beech and hornbeam and deserves a stop of its own in October, when the whole ridge turns copper. Bring binoculars: on a clear day the view north picks out the Gudauri slopes and, beyond them, the snow of the main range, while the Aragvi threads silver through the haze below.