Monasteries, Stalin’s birthplace, caves and a cathedral

On July 16th a group of about 20 of us boarded a small bus to travel outside Tbilisi to visit some historic sites.

MONASTERIES

The first stop was Jvari (Monastery of the Cross), about 30 kms from Tbilisi.

The 6th-century orthodox monastery is visible from the road below and sits atop a hill overlooking two rivers, one starting in the Caucasus and one in Turkey, that flow into the Caspian Sea.

Tradition says that in the 4th century, St. Nino, a female evangelist who brought Christianity to Georgia, stopped here on this highest hill in the region to pray and erected a cross, parts of which still exist. There are many such monasteries in Georgia built on top of hills.

STALIN’S BIRTHPLACE

The next stop was another 50 kms or so from Tbilisi in the city of Gori, a picturesque place also at the confluence of rivers and surrounded by mountains. There were many large tour buses of people here. In 2008, Gori was bombed by Russia, 20 people were killed, and the residents had to flee while the city was under Russian control for 10 days. Coincidentally, just days before we visited, Russia had moved some of its border signs with Georgia a few hundred metres, effectively making some farmers’ lands Russian territory. The conflict appears to be ongoing.

Gori’s claim to fame is that Joseph Stalin was born and went to school here.

There is apparently a strong desire here to preserve his memory. At the centre of town is Stalin Square, and the main street is Stalin Avenue, down which you will find the Stalin Museum. Ironically, Stalin didn’t enjoy either remembering his childhood or visiting Gori. We didn’t go in the two-story museum but just had a few minutes to walk around outside, where there were two interesting things to see, besides the street peddler selling Stalin novelties (I bought a magnet). One was Stalin’s personal, armored railroad carriage (unrestored), complete with Venetian glass mirrors, carved wooden furniture, a bathroom with bathtub and toilet, and an office room with a table, phone and a sofa.

Stalin’s original house, where he was born into a shoemaker’s family and lived until he was four, is also on the museum grounds. The ground floor would have been the cobbler’s shop and the family lived on the floor above. It is now protected by a columned structure with stained glass in the roof accented by a hammer and sickle design in the corners.

After meandering through farm country, where just about every house had grapevines, we stopped for lunch at a place where we could see from a distance the monastery on a hill that we had visited first.

CAVES

Next stop was Uplistsikhe, whose name translates to ‘Fortress of the Lord’. This is an ancient “cave city” built on the Mtkvari River near Gori, that combines rock-cut styles from Cappadocia (modern Turkey) and Northern Iran. It has been dated back to the Bronze Age.

Between the 6th century BC and the arrival of Christianity, it was an important pagan religious and cultural centre and was one of the oldest urban settlements in Georgia, until it was invaded and destroyed by the Mongols in the 13th century. After the 9th century, during the heyday of the kings of that time, the town had about 20,000 inhabitants.

It is constructed in three sections connected by staircases, alleys and tunnels, some of which were emergency escape routes.

Once up at the top, tourists are free to climb around the different levels at will and go to the edge of cliffs with no guardrails.

On the upper level is a Christian stone basilica, dating from the 9th-10th century.

The rock-cut structures include dwellings, a large hall, pagan places of sacrifice, and buildings such as a bakery, prison, wine cellar, and even an amphitheatre. There are round storage spaces and shelves cut into the rock that were used for storing wheat and medicinal herbs.

The views out over the river looked like Southern California, dry and semi-arid.

It was quite a climb up to the city, with railings and built stairs in some places, and other places where we had to clamber up and over rocks like mountain goats, with nothing to hold onto except the rock itself.

Coming down was slightly more treacherous in places, as the route was not always marked, but the final exit point was a long, steep staircase through a rock tunnel.

CATHEDRAL

Last stop on our tour this day was the town of Mtskheta, northwest of Tbilisi, another place at the confluence of two rivers. This is the location of Svetitskhoveli Cathedral, known as the burial site of Christ’s mantle and one of the largest and most sacred Orthodox churches in the region.

The name translates literally as the Cathedral of the Living Pillar. According to tradition, a Georgian Jew from Mtskheta was in Jerusalem when Christ was crucified, bought his robe from a Roman soldier, and brought it back to Georgia. His sister touched the robe and died immediately. The cloth could not be removed from her hands, so she was buried with it. At her gravesite a cedar tree grew, and its wood was used for seven columns for the foundation of a church to be built on the site. The seventh column rose into the air and only returned to earth after St. Nino prayed all night. Sacred liquid flowed from this column that cured many people of disease. The cathedral is considered by some Christians to be one of the most sacred places in the world (after the holy sites in Jerusalem), thanks to Christ’s robe.

The present church dates from the 11th century. Georgian kings were crowned here, and ten were known to have been buried here. Today, after much careful restoration, some of the original frescoes survive, and the walls are decorated with reproductions of many Christian Orthodox icons.

People come from all over the region to be married here.

And indeed, when we were here, there was a line-up of wedding parties on the grounds waiting for their turn inside the church, complete with drones to film some parties as they entered and left the church.

Mtskheta is a popular tourist destination with cobblestone streets, and there are many small hotels and street vendors near the cathedral. Although our bus tour took us up and down mountains and down country roads, so that everywhere we went seemed a world away from Tbilisi, it was only about a half-hour direct bus ride back to the capital.