Vardzia Cave Monastery
Twelfth-century cave city cut into a cliff above the Mtkvari, with the frescoed Church of the Dormition.
Vardzia was hollowed out of the tufa cliffs of the Erusheti range above the upper Mtkvari valley, in the far south of Georgia near the Turkish border. Work began under King Giorgi III in the later twelfth century and continued under his daughter Tamar, who ruled from 1184. Conceived partly as a fortified refuge against invasion from the south, the complex once ran for some five hundred metres and rose through as many as nineteen tiers, with several hundred chambers linked by tunnels and stairways, among them dwellings, chapels, a refectory, store rooms and wine cellars.
The centrepiece is the Church of the Dormition, carved and painted between 1184 and 1186. Its wall paintings, executed in secco, include a well-known portrait of Tamar holding a model of the church and are a key monument of medieval Georgian mural art. An earthquake in 1283 sheared away the outer rock face, exposing the interior galleries and leaving the honeycombed cliff visible today. A small monastic community has lived at the site again since the 1980s, and the area is a state heritage reserve.
Highlights
- Honeycombed cliff face with hundreds of rock-cut chambers on many levels
- Church of the Dormition with wall paintings of the 1180s
- Portrait of Queen Tamar holding a model of the church
- Tunnels, stairways, refectory and wine cellars inside the rock
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